Thank goodness the Arctic ice is melting
Three months ago, I wrote about some of the problems with the global warming debate, not the least of which is that we were only being exposed to one side of the debate, namely, the doom-and-gloom types of arguments. I questioned a couple of assertions being made by the anthropogenic global warming crowd, and concluded the piece with the observation that we never hear about any of the possible benefits of the Earth heating up.
Thanks to the implosion of the Green-as-the-new-Red movement, due to the Climategate scandal, my point is finally being considered by the mainstream!
From YaHoo! News:
STOCKHOLM (AFP) – China has started exploring how to reap economic and strategic benefits from the ice melting at the Arctic with global warming, a Stockholm research institute said Monday.
Chinese officials have so far had been cautious in expressing interest in the region for fear of causing alarm among the five countries bordering the Arctic, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said.
“The prospect of the Arctic being navigable during summer months, leading to both shorter shipping routes and access to untapped energy resources, has impelled the Chinese government to allocate more resources to Arctic research,” SIPRI researcher Linda Jakobson said.
And China isn’t the only country looking to benefit from open waters. From the CBC, an interesting story on how Russia and Canada have already helped save half a million dollars through shortened trade routes:
As I mentioned in December, there have to be benefits to the Earth being warmer. Indeed, we see that the Medieval warm period brought about “positive effects,” producing a “golden period” for Europe. Why shouldn’t we realize these same positive effects today? Increased water availability to ease the pains of the 80 countries suffering from water shortages, longer growing seasons to help combat the growing problem of food shortages, opening up more land in northern climes for human habitation, etc.
But nooooooo… All we were ever being force-fed was the idea that if the temperature rises even 1 degree, we’re all going to be swimming in the middle of whichever ocean is closest to us geographically.
It’s a fact of nature, evolution, and natural selection that changes to an environment are not always bad. Sure, some species may suffer due to climactic shifts, but in every event in nature, some species is more able to survive due to advantageous adaptation, and thus thrives and increases in population. It’s “the great balance” that we always see exhibited in nature. Life will always adapt. It is never stymied by the environment. It grows, expands, morphs, and fights tooth and nail to keep on going. The dinosaurs die and mammals are given their big break.
Today is no different than any other day. Tomorrow won’t be any different either. There is ALWAYS some good that results from shifts in nature, it is never the apocalyptic scenario we’ve seen take center stage in the realm of propaganda for the last 20 years.
(Hat tip: Joe and Mazel)
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I think I’ll eventually stir up the Climate Change hornet’s nest with a blog post here soon. I think I’ve got a unique take on the hysteria, the divisiveness and the conflicting opinions.
Until then, I’ll quote Coby Beck over at Discover’s Science Blogs, who disagrees with you. He writes:
“…the critical issue with what is going on today is not where the temperature is or would be and not with what it may end up being. The critical issue is how fast it is moving.
“Rapid change is the real danger. Human habits and infrastructure are suited to particular weather patterns and sea levels, as are ecosystems and animal behaviors. The rate at which the global temperature is rising today is very likely unique in the history of our species.
“This kind of sudden change is even very rare in geological history…Rapid climate change is the prime suspect in most of the mass extinction events, including the Great Dying some 250 million years ago, in which 90% of all life went extinct.
“What we know about ecosystems and what geologic history demonstrates is that dramatic climate changes – up or down or sideways – are a tremendous shock to the biosphere and cause mass extinction events. And that, all in all, is not likely to be a good thing.”
Granted, that’s a mouthful, and it drifts toward some alarmist cha cha cha, but it appears as though Beck has the intellectual chops and the background to put up a good fight in this debate.
Whole thing here:
http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2006/02/whats-wrong-with-warm-weather.php
See, Mass Extinction Events, like the dinosaurs dying, happened *really* fast. Comet hit the Earth, two or three days later, everything is dead because the entire surface of the planet was set on fire.
They’re discussing the temperature rising maybe a degree or two over the next *century*? Hmmm…
They have no way of knowing if mankind has ever experienced a faster warming or not. They don’t have data from 500 years ago, 1000 years ago, or 10,000 years ago. These are just guesses as to how warm we are compared to previous periods of our history.
There simply isn’t enough data to make the predicitions they’re making. They’d have to have several thousand years worth of climate data to make scientifically valid claims about the “normal state” of a planet 4 *billion* years old.