Trendy - Tuesday, September 26, 2006

"The Earth's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in today's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade for the last 30 years, according to the research team led by James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. That brings the overall temperature to the warmest in the current interglacial period, which began about 12,000 years ago."

I'll say it again. "It is a TREND", not a calamity.

The earth has been warming for the past eleven or twelve thousand years. The earth up Hudson's Bay is still rebounding from the weight of a two-mile thick layer of ice that once rested upon it. The Ohio river is enjoying its new course, that turns South at a point about twenty miles north-west of Pittsburgh, PA.

Eleven thousand years ago, Earth began a warming trend that saw a two-mile thick layer of ice begin to melt. That process continued the day before I was the born, the day I was born, and the day after I was born. It continues today, as you read these words. It will continue, this trend, the day before I die, the day I die, and the day after I die.

It is a trend. One day may be warmer than the next. The seasons of the 365-day year influence this greatly. One year may, on average, be cooler, or warmer, than the rest. But over a decent period - at least as long as human memory, if not longer, say, one hundred years, this 11,000 year trend can be expected to continue.

It is natural and it is to be tolerated and it is not a calamity. Plants and animals have adapted to changes forever. That is why we plants and animals are here - we are all survivors of change, survivors through adaptation.

But don't link man's activities with this trend. This trend to higher temperatures will occur whether or not someone turns the key in the ignition of a car.

If we cut the birthrate, lowered our use of automobiles, consumed less energy, and led less frivolous lives, the world would be a better place; I believe that. But I have to believe, too, that if every last one of the 7,874,654,384 of us was wiped off the face of the earth today, the planet would continue to warm up, and would do so until the start of the next ice age, at which time it would adopt a downward trend in temperature, then, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years later, it would start another upward trend.

For what it is worth, there has been an overall trend towards cooling since about four billion years ago. I don’t see anyone screaming about THAT!

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