Panic! Chaos! Armageddon! Apocalypse! Gloom! Doom!
What happened?
The United Nations, in its continuing quest to be relevant and thereby gain control over the world’s resources and its peoples, has launched another attempt to panic mankind into submission.
The UN, already demonstrably morally and ethically bankrupt (remember their Oil For Food swindle, and how they sat out or are sitting out genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, and the Sudan?), is playing the only card it holds for all it is worth – the “Man-Caused Global Warming” Joker. This time even their top guy, UN General Secretary Nan Ki-Poo (Sorry, I started to type Ban Ki-moon, but then thought his global warming pronouncements were so operatically overly dramatic that I couldn’t help poking a little low humor at him. For that I apologize, since in my heart of hearts I wish I could come up with something appropriately more humorous and worthy of this UN drama queen).
In the UN’s most recent attempt at relevance:
The United Nations says sea levels will rise 4.6 feet in the next 1,000 years. That’s 5.5 inches per century, slightly less than sea levels rose the past century, and the century before, and … well, you get the picture.
Maybe we should try to put the sea level increases in historical perspective. Have sea levels risen prior to the era of “man-caused” global warming?
Glad you asked.
Since the end of the last glacial period 18,000 years ago, sea levels have risen over 400 feet, or an average of over two feet per century. So now we’re in a panic because we think sea levels will rise less than half a foot per century? When the historical average is over two feet per century? For the past 180 centuries?
Memo to United Nations scientists – the Earth is in an interglacial period. There’s an easy way to tell if Earth is in a glacial or interglacial period. Is Chicago under a mile thick ice cap? If “no,” then we’re in an interglacial period.
If “yes,” then Earth is deep in a glacial period.
Check again in about 10,000 to 20,000 years. The odds are very good you’ll have to dig through a mile of ice to find Chicago again.
The United Nations says that “global warming is unequivocal.” It certainly took the UN a long time to arrive at the obvious. The fact is, global warming has been unequivocal since the early 1900’s, when it was clear that the Little Ice Age had ended in the mid-1800’s, and that a sustained warming period had begun.
Interestingly, this warming period became a cooling period from about 1945 to 1975, during the period of greatly increased production of carbon dioxide from human activities. According to the anthropogenic global warming crowd, it’s not supposed to happen like that. I have been waiting for them to provide a coherent explanation for this anomaly for a long time.
I have also been waiting for them to explain why there was a sustained warming period from 1910 to 1945 that saw an increase of 0.4° C, and that it took almost twice as long, from 1945 to 2005, to get another increase of 0.4° C.
The UN pronouncement is a model for cherry-picking information. It’s interesting when they announce that eleven of the twelve hottest days on record occurred since 1990. Left unsaid is that the record they are looking at only began in 1978, at the end of a prolonged cooling period. More appropriately, according to recently revised NASA weather statistics, five of the ten warmest years occurred before World War II, with 1934 the warmest, 1921 second, and 1998 third.
The UN also cites recent hurricane activity as proof of intensifying storm activity as a result of global warming. Oddly enough, hurricanes have been more numerous and more powerful, even during cooler periods.
During the warming period of 1970 to 1994, hurricane activity was extremely low, resulting in unprecedented coastal population growth and development. Prior to this period of low activity, hurricanes were numerous and strong from 1926 to 1970. Unlike the UN scientists, true experts in hurricanes have long recognized that there is a cycle for hurricane activity that is called the “tropical multi-decadal signal,” and that each cycle can last for 20 or 30 years, or longer.
Much has been made of Katrina and the hurricanes of 2005 by global warming alarmists. These same alarmists have nothing to say about the very benign hurricane seasons of 2006 and 2007. I suppose they will now shift their attention to the cyclone that just killed 15,000 Bangladeshi. However, they will probably not mention that in 1970 an estimated almost half a million Bangladeshi were killed by a cyclone.
Also sure to be overlooked, the over half a million Chinese and Indians killed by three powerful storms in the late 1800’s.
The UN of course notes that global warming will have its greatest impact on the poor. I suppose the UN experts won’t notice that during the past two centuries, more that 131 million perished from famine, or that in recent years famine has become more a result of bad government – China, Ethiopia, North Korea – than of climate change. In fact, only five million of the 131 million deaths from famine occurred after 1970, and almost all were in that paragon of world communism, North Korea.
Predictably, the UN even mentions that wildfires are a sign of out-of-control global warming. However, wildfire frequency has decreased during the past 200 years, while wildfire severity increased due to fire suppression causing fuel buildup in many areas, while population growth and development in fire-prone areas has increased dramatically.
To summarize, the United Nations continues their near-panicked quest to be relevant. They say mankind has caused the world to become abnormally warm, while ignoring much warmer periods like the Holocene Optimum, Roman warm period, and the Medieval Warm Period.
The UN says warming will cause the seas to rise half a foot per century, overlooking that past centuries on average had rates of sea level increase quadruple the current rate.
The UN says the current warming is the highest recorded, overlooking the warming that occurred during the first half of the 1900’s, or the ever greater warming one thousand, two thousand, and five thousand years ago.
The UN says warming will cause more powerful storms, maybe almost as bad as the ones before 1970, or even the horrific ones of the late 1800’s.
According to the UN, warming will also cause more famine, although the trend has been a dramatic reduction in famines during this warmer period, as long as you’re not living in a communist country.
Finally, as fresh as yesterday’s headlines, there are the wildfires, which have been decreasing for 200 years.
The UN's experts may be dumb, but they and Al Gore are dumb like a fox (although not as smart as an ox). The United Nations experts and Al are betting on ignorance of history and science on the part of the world’s peoples to get their message across.
From all indications, they’re betting on a sure thing.
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