Miscellaneous 165 (The Climate Change Edition)

1) Late last year, well over 100 (129, to be exact) scientists (the vast majority of whom have PhDs in meteorology, astrophysics, geology, oceanography, astronomy, climatology, etc.)  wrote an open letter to the U.N. in which they strenuously challenged the conventional thinking on climate change; i.e., that the earth is warming at an alarming rate and the human activity is the primary mover of it. This whole notion of there being some sort of consensus and that the science is settled is something that should really be put to rest.............2) The most dangerous type of climate change isn't global warming, it's global cooling. I mean, just look back at the previous instances of both. During the Minoan, Roman, and Medieval warming periods (times in which Florida was NEVER 50% under water), human societies prospered. Contrast that with the little ice age in which there was great human suffering and it isn't even a close call here. Enough already with the warming hysteria.............3) The temperature of the earth apparently has warmed over the past 160 or so years. But there are clearly some issues here. a) Most of these temperature readings have been arrived at via surface readings and those have been confounded by urbanization and population growth (people, buildings and industry de facto give off heat). Yes, there has been a somewhat marked rise in temperature over the past century and a half. But when you balance that by also looking at the temperature readings in rural areas and from the upper atmosphere the increase in temperature is decidedly less. And b) when you also look at the satellite and balloon temperature readings of the past 34 (in the case of satellite) and 55 (in the case of radiosonde weather balloons) years, respectively, that, too, will show you a much more modest rise in temperature. To try and pull an Al Gore and insinuate some sort of doomsday scenario here is just plain silly, IMMHO.............4) According to data from Oregon State University, there was actually a three million year time frame (from six million years ago to three million years ago) in which the earth's temperatures were a good 2-3 degrees warmer than they are today. No, there weren't any human beings around back then but it thoroughly stands to reason that they would have probably been OK. The 2.5 million years of colder conditions that followed it - that might have been a different story.