During the opening ceremony to the 2016 Summer Olympics a video was aired on the impact of climate change, including the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising of sea levels.
I was at first surprised (and disappointed) that they would include such a segment during the opening ceremony, but then I realized that I shouldn’t be, considering how environmentalists claim that deforestation (especially deforestation in the Amazon region) is partly to blame for global warming, although they usually claim that fossil fuel consumption is the main culprit.
But despite the beliefs of the International Olympic Committee, the United Nations, the Obama Administration, etc., the truth is that global warming is not man-made. The Earth goes through periods of warming and cooling — thus its climate fluctuates.
According to Tom Bethell’s book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, the recording of the Earth’s surface temperatures began in the 1860s, and they have provided the following: a warming period from around 1910 to 1940, then a cooling period from 1940-1975 (a period during which the use of fossil fuel consumption was probably the highest for the Twentieth Century), then a warming period from 1975 to around 2000. Since 2000, the Earth has experienced a cooling period, despite the hot summers.
As for change in global temperature, it has been determined that there was an increase during the Twentieth Century, but only slightly (one degree Fahrenheit to be exact). Of course, only the United States uses Fahrenheit when it comes to recording temperatures (the rest of the world uses Celsius). Interestingly, the United States is usually blamed for global warming, and was even the target of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 (under which various nations would reduce their Greenhouse gas emissions by 2012).
Bethell then points out that the Earth’s atmospheric temperatures do not agree with its surface temperatures. In fact, the only time there was an increase in the Earth’s atmospheric temperatures was during the late 1970s (coincidentally after the environmentalist movement came along) and such an increase was the result of a solar anomaly.
Bethell also mentions the importance of where temperature readings are recorded, e.g. the urban island effect in the United States. Weather stations in urban areas are likely to have higher temperatures than those in rural areas. Why? Because according to Holly Drennan Dayo’s book Dare to Prepare! the material in streets and roads absorb heat during the day and release it at night, which is why summer nights in some places are hotter than others.
As for the polar ice caps, they too undergo periods of both melting and expanding. And the latest news confirms that they have actually increased in size. Meanwhile, there has been little (if any) increase in sea levels.
In conclusion, global warming is a natural cycle. The environmentalists try to use scare tactics on its impact, but they have not been very successful in convincing the general public.
Image: Shutterstock:98702825
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