The Horror of Global Warming!!!! (standard:Editorials, 626 words)
Author: Tanada	Added: Aug 07 2002	Views/Reads: 3933/0	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
What is really going on?

Sounds pretty grim when they talk about it on the evening news doesn't
it?  Well if I were suffering from the things the news predicts I would 
feel pretty grim about it too, however NOBODY is. 

For those who care to look into the issue you will discover that the
Earth is currently coming out of a period known as "the Little Ice 
Age".  When the Roman Empire flourished and Jesus Christ walked the 
earth the temperature AT THAT TIME averaged 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2 
to 3 degrees F) warmer than right now.  Sounds pretty bad when the news 
talks about the temperature rising 2 degrees Fahrenheit until you 
understand that 2,000 years ago that was the 'normal' temperature. 

At the end of the first millennium around 1,001 AD the Vikings planted
many successful villages in Greenland.  They named the place Greenland 
because beautiful green valleys lead down from the mountain glaciers to 
the sea.  Sadly for the Viking settlers the Little Ice Age came into 
being about 1200 AD and lasted until about 1850 AD (every different 
source I researched gave different dates, these were the most popular 
dates averaged).  The poor Vikings of Greenland saw the glaciers grow 
all the way from the mountains around them to the coast, the last 
village lost contact with Europe in the mid 1400's. 

Now that the Little Ice Age has ended the Glaciers are retreating, not
just in Greenland but world wide.  Mount Killimonjaro in Africa for 
instance has lost 92% of the glaciers which covered it in 1912.  It is 
expected that at the current temperature the remaining 8% will be gone 
by 2015, if not a little sooner.  Is this a disaster?  Not at all!  
This is simply a case of the Earth returning FROM the disaster that the 
Little Ice Age caused. 

For example, before 1200 AD grapes were grown for wine in England, 
Northern Germany and Northern France.  Once the Little Ice Age took 
effect the grapes no longer could be grown successfully in these 
climates and the South of France and Southern Germany became the now 
famous wine country. 

Imagine that, England as one of the chief area's for Wine production. 
It was so 800 years ago and if the Lord sees fit to bring Earth back to 
a biblical era climate once more it will be again. 

Climate change is not something to be feared, we insignificant humans
can neither speed nor retard what the climate is going to do.  We best 
forget about fear and get on with the business of adapting to the 
changes which are in store for us.  Glaciers will melt, polar caps will 
shrink a little and in the end everything climatically will be as it 
once was.  Judging by archeological evidence the Middle east will be a 
bit more pleasant of a place to live, a little wetter and just a bit 
warmer.  Greenland will again be a land with long fertile green valleys 
where right now glaciers still take up most of the valley.  In South 
America the glaciers of the Andes will melt away and the local people 
will have to find replacements for the benefits they currently have, 
cheap power from glacier melt water being the main one. 

In other words, there will be both good and bad resulting from the
current return to biblical global temperatures, humanity will do as it 
always does.  We will whine and complain for as long as possible.  Then 
when we can no longer procrastinate we will get on with the business of 
mitigating the bad and enjoying the good. 

So be it, human nature is the one thing we have never been able to
change, and I for one hope we never will. 


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