Not sure this is the appropriate forum for this, but. . . This is a good article with some valid questions about current climate change, but there should no longer be scientific doubt that climate change is happening and it is correlated to us humans.
The difference between ice age CO2 levels (180ppm) and modern levels (280 ppm) was 100 ppm. Now we are at 381 ppm CO2, again a change of 100 ppm, over the last century and 1/2!! (which the article argues is not caused by humans. Hello?). What a huge difference between ice age and pre-global climate change 100 ppm made! What is it doing to our current climate? And we are probably headed for 450 ppm with current CO2 releases!
The article argues that polar ice caps and antarctic ice masses will keep the earth in cooling trends. But the ice caps are turning to slush rapidly, changing ocean currents, reducing reflection back to the atmosphere (hotter temps), and raising sea levels (hello hurricanes). Not to mention the mass of fresh water lost as our rapidly depleting glaciers rush to sea, a major consideration in the Northwest. As well as rapid development in places like China and India, and the numerous feedback loops including wildfire and permafrost thawing that will increase the impacts.
Because of these feedback loops, the results of our tinkering are hard to predict, especially in relation to natural climate fluctuations, as the article observes. Will it be colder or warmer? I think we are seeing what the climate will be, unpredictable rapid changes from year to year and day to day, with resulting impacts on farmers, wildlife, and watersheds. But Dot is right, we should work to clean up our act, whatever way we can.
Laura "I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit."-Kahlil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"
