I Thought It Felt a Bit Chilly In Here

Now that the important stuff is done (the NFL Playoffs), let's turn our attention to Global Warming--oops, I mean Global Climate Change.  You may have missed the story a few weeks ago that a leaked United Nations report shows that estimates of global warming were overstated for years.  The report also admits that solar activity and sunspots are tied more directly to global temperature patterns than researchers initially wanted to admit.

Ok, this is more of a "Fox News" story, so it didn't get a lot of exposure in other media outlets--but it still deserves some serious discussion.  Let's start with why the initial UN numbers and reports predicting certain doom were wrong.  The scientific answer is that it is impossible to accurately predict weather and climate patterns when there are so many variables beyond human control.  Those refuting the impact of the leaked report seem to blame Mount Pinatubo's eruption in 1991 for a "temporary cooling" of the planet by putting solar-ray-deflecting ash into the upper atmosphere.  I get the feeling that the Icelandic volcano eruption (I'm not even going to try to spell the name of that one) that grounded flights all over Europe a few years ago will "mess up" future climatological projections as well.  And then it will be another volcano and another volcano......

But even if those who prepared the initial UN climate projections could have factored in unpredictable volcanic, ocean current and solar activity, they were still going to paint a "worst possible case scenario"--because they know nobody is going to worry about a few one hundredths of a degree, or even a few tenths of a degree over decades.  But tell them we are on the verge of "out of control global warming" and they might panic, well slightly.

While the UN alarmists may have been off on their projections, the fact is the earth has been getting warmer.  In fact, that has been happening for about 12-thousand years now.  As I often like to say to those preaching gloom and doom, the very spot where I am typing this was buried beneath a sheet of ice TWO MILES THICK at that time.  So let's find out what early Homo Sapien man was doing to cause the "sudden" change in climate that started the "domino effect" and we can stop doing that as well.  Or, we can continue to develop the technology and food crops to deal with slightly warmer temperatures over the next few centuries. 

However, if you still believe that man should go back to the caves and forage for his meals in order to "protect the environment" I would recommend claiming some spots on the coasts of South Africa--since those glaciers are coming back--global warming reports or not.