I do believe that the world has been warming but that it is almost entirely natural and much politicized. The world is not as warm as it was during the Roman or Medieval Warming periods when grapes from Italy thrived in Britain and when the Norse established farms in Greenland.
The Roman and Medieval Warming periods were times when the living was easy. Food production increased, population increased, productivity increased, trade flourished, empire expanded, cities were founded, cathedrals were built and universities were established.
The cold periods that followed the Roman and Medieval Warming were, on the other hand, catastrophic. Snow fell during the summer in southern Europe. During the winter of 800 – 801 A.D., the Black Sea froze over. The year 829 A.D. saw the River Nile edged in ice. Throughout the cold Dark Ages, chaos, desperation, and continual warfare destroyed all but the remnant and recollection of Classical Civilization sequestered and nurtured in the monasteries of the Church. Growing seasons shortened, crops failed, people starved and disease decimated populations.
The current warm period began about 1850 and who can argue but that the human race has prospered and increased and multiplied as never before? Modern times are warm, comfortable and blessed with health and longevity to an unprecedented degree. We are on the verge of seeing this prosperity spreading even to the struggling populations of the less developed portions of the world. Optimism should be our byword.
Yet, on the left, the nattering nabobs of negativism are pessimistic. They see the prosperity and seek to sap it. They see the human population increase, multiply and strive for a share of the good life and seek to suppress it. This is exactly what the “carbon footprint” nonsense means. Call it “Cap and Trade” or whatever you wish but it will ultimately become a global tax on carbon, the physical basis of all living organisms, and the very stuff of life.
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