"Chasing Ice" Challenge

I agreed I would watch the “documentary” Chasing Ice if a friend would watch Murry Salby’s Relationship between Greenhouse Gases and Global Temperature. I haven’t watched Chasing Ice yet, but the differences between the two are obvious: Chasing Ice is visual entertainment, Salby is science. I read numerous  Chasing Ice reviews; none were by scientists, none noted that natural climate change has been in a warming phase for over 200 years, and none were aware that glacier retreat was much faster and more extensive in the 1800’s. It’s hard to explain natural climate change to a modern audience because there was no dramatic film available from the 1800’s.

However, there is another, enormous problem in being a skeptic and opposing the natural climate change deniers: saying that something is normal, and that nothing needs doing to keep it that way, does not tap into the human urge to do something to save the world. Imagine Paul Revere’s ride through the night shouting: “The British aren’t coming!” if the British decided to give up and go home.

No one gets excited when science demonstrates climate change is natural, always has been, and that humanity doesn’t have to turn to Stone Age economics to save anything. In fact, if we did nothing except encourage the abundant and wise use of energy resources and free trade, the resulting increase in global prosperity could cure the problems of overpopulation, hunger, disease, violence, and reality TV shows.

Well, four out of five isn’t bad.

Prosperity has already worked wonders in developed nations, perhaps even too well. The populations of European nations and Japan are already shrinking, and ours would be too if our freedoms and opportunities weren’t a magnet to the world.

Time to watch the simplistic Chasing Ice for some good laughs.