tbascom says:

“Global Warming!-IS- Human/ Industrial Waste!”

Sorry, not so, Lawrence. Please read my post “Global Warming or Global Cooling? What is Coming?” It’s listed on the right, under “Related Stories.” There is simply too much evidence that global warming and cooling cycles operate independent of any human effect. Among other things, we’ve been in a global warming cycle for some 50,000 years – that is, since the turning point in the middle of the last ice age, when the climate started warming, which produced the end of the ice age about 20,000 years ago. We continue to be in a warming cycle, which is expected to continue another 10,000-30,000 years. However, we are also to expect intermittent cooling cycles, determined by sunspot activity. The next 50 years are likely going to be cooler than the last 100. But then the sun spot activity will kick up again, and we’ll get warmer again.

Meanwhile, prepare for cold temps. And stop those idiot legislators from curbing the use of heating fuels. If you can’t heat with wood, oil or nuclear power, you are going to be VERY cold, my friend.

Also, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide is linked to the average global temperature, not to human activity. As the global temperature increases, the ability of the earth to capture and store the gas decreases, which leads to increased atmospheric CO2 (this is covered in more detail in my post).

However, the increase in atmospheric CO2 actually helps set up future cooling. That’s because carbon dioxide both traps heat and is lighter than other elements in the atmosphere. So it rises to the upper atmosphere and discharges heat back into space – effectively acting like a heat exchanger to cool ground-level temperatures. That means that increased CO2 during warming cycles is both natural and good.

By exchanging heat at greater rates as the earth warms, CO2 helps start a cooling cycle, which will eventually lead to more decreased atmospheric CO2 as it is better captured by land and ocean vegetation (which happens at cooler temperatures), slowly and gradually undercutting the growing cooling trend and setting up for the next warming cycle.

All of this is to say: the system if far more complex than climate politics recognizes. We could either burn all carbon-bearing substances on earth at once, or altogether stop burning any carbon-bearing substances and have a virtually-undetectable influence on the temperature of the earth and its atmosphere. And in any event, we would have absolutely no effect on the longer term solar and orbital cycles that actually govern temperature and climate patterns. (For more on orbital cycles, see my post.)

I also have to say: I think the notion that human beings can make a determination about what moment in the earth’s time and change pattern is THE perfect moment, that has to be sustained indefinitely, is both stupid and highly egotistical. We simply CANNOT stop climate change any more than we can stop time itself, or stop the orbital patterns and wobble shift of the earth. These cosmic behaviors influence climate changes, and will overrule any and all human behavior.

When the ice age ended between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago, human beings made the adaptation. Many animals did not; they died out and new animals arose to take their place. So, too, with vegetation. That’s going to happen again. And again. The earth’s seas will rise and fall; the snow pack will grow and shrink and grow again; Greenland will again become green, and then become buried again in deep snowpack. Hurricanes will have stronger and weaker seasons. The ocean currents will warm and cool, raising and lowering the northern hemisphere’s mean ground-level temperature. It will sometimes be harder to grow enough crops in North America and northern Europe, and sometimes be easier.

We cannot stop, freeze, or change any of that.

That’s not to turn a blind eye on pollution, however. I do think human waste is a matter of concern. However, in geological time terms, it is a local and brief concern. We CAN pollute our local environments for short periods of time (even a million years is “short” when seen from the perspective of geologic time). And I think we can pollute sufficiently to harm or even kill ourselves. So let’s get a whole lot better about our pollution management. But let’s not pretend our pollution will change the earth’s climate path in any appreciable degree. We are but a biting mosquito on the tough hide of a cosmic-sized elephant.