November 20, 2007
Since you have published so many letters blaming global warming on the actions of humanity, I feel impelled to present the other side of the discussion. It is hard to separate the fact of global warming from the fiction that this is due to human actions. Most of the false conclusions come from looking at too short a time scale.
Yes, if we look back 100 years, we find that the temperature of the earth has been increasing, with a faster rate during the last 50. However, if we look back 1,000 years, we find the Vikings raising wheat and grazing cattle in Greenland (which was truly a green land) and Vineland (the Eastern coast of Nova Scotia), a prolific grape-growing region, for several generations. The average temperature was at least 10 degrees warmer than it is now. But, as they say on television: Wait! There's more.
If we look back 100,000 years, we find the great Laurentian ice sheet covering North America, more than a mile thick. This started to melt about 50,000 years ago, with human settlement following the edge of the retreating ice and reaching our area about 20,000 years ago.
The average temperature of the Earth was at least 10 degrees, and maybe as much as 20 degrees, colder than it is now, and this warming is continuing to this day. But, again, there's more.
If we look back 150,000 years, we find elephants and sabertooth tigers roaming the grassy plains of Siberia and northern Canada. Average temperatures were maybe 20 degrees warmer than now. And as we look back farther, we see continuous warming and cooling. These periodic major temperature changes cannot possibly be due to human actions.
In conclusion, there is a strong argument to be made that the global warming we are now experiencing is part of a natural cycle whose causes are not understood.
This does not demean efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Everything along this line of effort is good and useful.
But those who are politicizing this subject are those who blame it all on industrial development, and on the U.S. in particular.
Jerome V. White
Amherst
Yes, if we look back 100 years, we find that the temperature of the earth has been increasing, with a faster rate during the last 50. However, if we look back 1,000 years, we find the Vikings raising wheat and grazing cattle in Greenland (which was truly a green land) and Vineland (the Eastern coast of Nova Scotia), a prolific grape-growing region, for several generations. The average temperature was at least 10 degrees warmer than it is now. But, as they say on television: Wait! There's more.
If we look back 100,000 years, we find the great Laurentian ice sheet covering North America, more than a mile thick. This started to melt about 50,000 years ago, with human settlement following the edge of the retreating ice and reaching our area about 20,000 years ago.
The average temperature of the Earth was at least 10 degrees, and maybe as much as 20 degrees, colder than it is now, and this warming is continuing to this day. But, again, there's more.
If we look back 150,000 years, we find elephants and sabertooth tigers roaming the grassy plains of Siberia and northern Canada. Average temperatures were maybe 20 degrees warmer than now. And as we look back farther, we see continuous warming and cooling. These periodic major temperature changes cannot possibly be due to human actions.
In conclusion, there is a strong argument to be made that the global warming we are now experiencing is part of a natural cycle whose causes are not understood.
This does not demean efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Everything along this line of effort is good and useful.
But those who are politicizing this subject are those who blame it all on industrial development, and on the U.S. in particular.
Jerome V. White
Amherst
Source : http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071120/OPINION02/311200058/-1/news
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