No Global Warming - What Next?
By E. Ralph Hostetter
November 12, 2009
Global temperatures stopped rising in 1989 and have declined since then, according to a NASA study of satellite temperature data during the past decade.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.N. study group that avidly promotes the concept of global warming, grudgingly acknowledged that temperatures have dropped in spite of the fact that carbon dioxide production has been rising.
Environmental activists have claimed that the increases in CO2 in the atmosphere are the cause of global warming. CO2 has increased some 25 percent during the past 140 years. Most of the increase occurred before 1940 and before the large onslaught of CO2 generated by the automotive age, the air age and the present space age.
Nevertheless, this story of rising CO2 is being circulated by the likes of former Vice President Al Gore, the Sierra Club, the Ralph Nader followers, and a number of other far-left people and groups..
The news that the globe is no longer warming at the minimal rate that it had been, slightly less than 1degree Centigrade in the past 100 years, has created great consternation among those who had built an industry on the concept of global warming, particularly Gore.
Gore has made millions. His books have been best-sellers and his motion picture, "An Inconvenient Truth" has been successful. His success at promoting the concept of global warming led to his selection as a recipient of the highly regarded Nobel Peace prize.
Global warming has been one of the most controversial and debated issues in modern times. Now that it will be dropped from the environmental radar screen, the power vacuum requires a major issue, concocted if necessary, to fill the void.
Some suggest that the global warmers no doubt will go back to their origins from the 1970s, when they were "ice agers."
Temperatures have declined during the past 10 years, and declines are predicted to continue over the next 15 to 20 years. If temperatures fall much lower, as they did in the 1920s, we may have a repeat of 1922, which proved to be the coldest year in the 20th century.
Last month was the third-coldest October recorded in U.S. history, according to preliminary data. The average October temperature of 50.8 degrees F. was 4 degrees below the 20th-century average.
Drops in temperatures occurred in the 1950s and again in the 1970s, when an "ice age" was proclaimed to have arrived.
Indeed, Newsweek reported in its Earth Day issue on July 28, 1975: "There are obvious signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically. Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climate change."
Newsweek conceded, however, that such solutions as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot to retain the Earth's heat "might create other problems."
Newsweek concluded by saying, "The longer the planning delay, the more difficult they will find it to cope with climate change once the results become grim reality."
A 1975 National Academy of Sciences story suggested the possibility of “huge year-round snowfields in the U.S. or Europe."
Stephen H. Schneider, then of the National Center of Atmospheric Research, wondered whether "we can afford to gamble that we will not have a series of years like 1972 and 1974 when drought, floods and early frosts will dramatically reduce crop yields, causing mass misery in the world.”
Schneider's book "Genesis Strategy" suggested that we seek the wisdom of biblical times, "when Joseph advised the pharaoh to store grain during the seven years of plenty to feed the people during the seven years of famine.”
What makes Schneider's proclamation so unusual is that he became one of 2,500 scientists later to proclaim global warming. He wrote another book, entitled "Global Warming," never mentioning his "ice age" connections.
One thing is certain: Global warming has generated an enormous body of influence in the nation and in the world.
President Obama has announced that he will attend the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The meeting itself was in jeopardy recently when poorer nations threatened to walk out of the latest round of U.N. talks in Barcelona after the U.S. and other rich countries refused to cut their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the demands of those poorer nations.
It is difficult for the United States to agree formally to legally binding emission targets until the Senate has approved the level of cuts. Obama has acknowledged that the Senate would not pass the crucial legislation before Copenhagen.
Late word is that key Senate Democrats doubt there will be any major committee actions on climate change legislation this year. However, Obama suggested that a “framework” agreement still can be thrashed out to commit the world to tackling global warming.
“I think the question is can we create a set of principles, building blocks, that allow for ongoing and continuing progress on the issue,” Obama said, adding, “That’s something I’m confident we can achieve.”
Should the world’s leaders be forced to concede that the globe no longer is warming, Al Gore and his minions will be searching for a new cause.
Americans can only hope that cause will prove beneficial to the nation.
E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and agricultural publisher, also is a national and local award-winning columnist. He welcomes comments by e-mail sent to eralphhostetter@yahoo.com.
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