For Gloria

-Deerslayer

There was a very pertinent article in the Dallas Morning News on December 27, 1970, Section B, page 14, sort of at the beginning of the problem. The problem at the time was that from the 1880s until the 1940s the climate had been warming, but then, alarmingly, it has been cooling ever since. Here are some quotes.

"The worlds climate in the past 100 years has changed, if not drastically, enough to pose worrisome questions."

"Some meteorologists blame man (well, duh...who else can pay the taxes and carbon credits to poor countries to fix it???). His pouring of carbon dioxide into the air from the burning of fuels has tended to raise the temperature. Countering this effect has been an increase in airborne dust, noticeably over cities, which blocks sunlight and tends to reduce temperatures.

"A British climatologist has reported that the growing season has shortened by two weeks since 1950."

"If man is the chief culprit then it may be possible for him to change his ways and prevent another ice age and the fall of civilization."

Very alarming stuff, indeed! What else can we do to help? I'm doing my part by running my air conditioner day and night in the summer to help filter out particles of dust from my house, AND the World.

Time scales are very important in the global warming debate. Rarely are they considered. An indisputable fact is that the earth has been warming since the last ice age which was about 14,000 years ago. The earth will continue to warm until the ocean currents become too warm and stop flowing to the poles. At that point, a new ice age begins.

The earth has undergone several global warmings and ice ages. As I see it, the pertinent questions are:

1. Is global warming a bad thing?
2. Is man accelerating global warming?
3. Should man interfere with nature regarding global warming?

-Deerslayer

You can't discount Mother Nature for changing civilization (worldwide plague, famine, pestilence, and the other usual red flags of human mismanagement of the environment).