Good News and Bad News about Global Warming

This is a public service announcement. It contains good news and bad news.

The bad news first.

There is no man-caused global warming.

The good news.

There is natural global warming.

For those of you who believed Al Gore when he said mankind could give you warmer weather, healthier and more abundant crops, gentler weather (when temperature variation is reduced, so is storm intensity), and less frost and freezing damage to fruits, I’m sorry to bear the sad tidings that mankind just can’t do it. The more CO2 we pump into the atmosphere, the marginal effect of CO2 on warming steadily decreases.

And CO2 increases can’t overcome other, stronger forces, like solar and orbital variations.

That’s why it was warmer 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period than today, without any regard to increased CO2 from industrialization – because there wasn’t any.

It was even warmer during the Holocene Climate Optimum from 9,000 to 5,000 years ago. In fact, without benefit of mankind's production of CO2, temperatures in northern latitudes increased by much more than the most alarmist predictions of Al Gore's global warming apostles and acolytes.

Bad news for polar bear phobics. Polar bears survived both of these extended warm periods.

As a result of solar and orbital variations, the Earth warmed more during the first half of the 1900’s, and actually cooled from 1940 to 1980, even though CO2 increased steadily and dramatically.

For those who want the benefits of warmer weather, we have good short-term news. The Earth is warming naturally, and has been sporadically since the high point of the last glacial period was reached 18,000 years ago.

All the good things warmer weather can bring will be lavished on us – for the next 2,000 years.

Then global cooling will set in.

The current interglacial period will be replaced by the next glacial period.

Just as it has hundreds of times before.

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