I am sure some of you will find this insulting, but people are not only lazy, but they are oftentimes stupid. Stupid because so many people are not willing to exert a little energy to verify things before they go off half-cocked into the world. Someone whom they value/appreciate says, “This is happening,” and rather than saying to themselves, “Hmmm…I wonder if this is true,” they immediately invest themselves wholeheartedly into promoting this idea, using second hand information and doctored data. I have the highest disdain for anyone who spits out rhetorical statistics but can’t back those statistics up with hard data from a reputable source (FYI: Al Gore is NOT a reputable source).
Whenever I meet anyone under the age of 30, I can be pretty sure that they will believe things passionately, but not know why. I find this especially so because they are part of a generation that has their needs met immediately: microwave popcorn, downloadable music and movies, mobile phones, etc. Everything about their existence is on the fast track. I find this sad and you should too… They have grown up without ever suffering the indignity of patience.
Can you blame them when someone gives them something to believe in whole cloth without having to actually research the validity of the cause? It is this that has made environmentalism (and the global warming panic) the cause de jour of young people (and complete idiots of a certain age) the world over.
Ok, now that I set the table, let’s eat.
I DO NOT dispute that the world has gotten warmer over the last 100 years. In fact, the average temperature of Earth has risen six-tenths of one degree since 1904. Sea levels are estimated to have risen 10 to 20 centimeters in the same time frame. Scary? Only if you are a snail and can’t make it to higher ground in 100 years.
What I do dispute though is what these facts mean. I also dispute whether or not mankind has had anything to do with it. Much of what the mainstream media and alternative educational leaders say about climate change would lead you to believe that we are in imminent danger of burning up in a flash of monstrous heat. That being said, it might be surprising to discover that we’re living in a period that geologists call The Great Ice Age, a period that spans the last 2.6 million years.
These ice ages have ocurred numerous times throughout human history, and inhuman history counting the millions of years before organisms crawled from the primordial ooze and onto dry land. Understand that 2.6 million years for the Earth is like a blink of an eye for you and me, but it is significant to you and I because it is the period of time that scientists and climatologists can study accurately (well as accurately as we can given technology).
The term Ice Age is actually a misnomer. During a period labeled as such, the planet is not constantly encased in a block of ice, but instead constantly fluctuating between periods of warming and cooling. These climatic episodes are called glacial (cooling) and interglacial (warming) periods. We are currently living through an interglacial period, with the last glacial period ending some 18,000 years ago. But 20,000 years ago, the world did not resemble the hospitable planet we call home. A good portion of the Northern hemisphere was a solid block of ice. North America and much of Northern Europe slept under almost 2 miles of ice. Huge icebergs commuted between parts unknown and Portugal and global sea levels were 328 feet lower than they are today.
100,000 years ago things were different yet again. This period was the last warm interglacial period. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, and cave lions called southern England home.
If you simply looked at the historical record in reference to climate change, you would see 49 cold-warm swings in The Great Ice Age. But of course, you kids today don’t like reading anything longer than the fortune in a fortune cookie. To truly understand the changes the world is going through, and adequately place blame, you would have to read quite a bit and explore information sources that are actually prepared by real scientists who study climate change. That is of course too much trouble. It is so much easier listening to an ex-vice president that couldn’t convince 51% of the voters to elect him to a higher office than it is to actually do some research and form an educated opinion.
So go ahead and preach about global warming and how humans are ruining the planet. I will continue to engage you in debate and make you feel like a moron. I don’t mind, it just gets old rubbing people’s faces in the excrement of their beliefs all the time.