Sandi Doughton on the Tribune News Service may have concluded that “Captain Cook’s 1778 records confirm global warming” from the junk science of Harry Stern and David Nicandri but what I personally have concluded is that “anthropogenic global warming” has
Sandi Doughton on the Tribune News Service may have concluded that “Captain Cook’s 1778 records confirm global warming” from the junk science of Harry Stern and David Nicandri but what I personally have concluded is that “anthropogenic global warming” has moved from questionable climate science to a belief system fraught with the inaccuracy, bias confirmation and fact dismissal of any other nescient belief system. Is man-made climate change a new religious doctrine?
The period from about 1300 to 1850, especially after 1650, was designated the Little Ice Age almost 80 years ago by Francois E. Matthews. During the Little Ice Age, global temperatures dropped several degrees Celsius and glaciation expanded, causing severe winters. Of course, this fact was not mentioned in the article in question, which is why I have taken to calling “anthropogenic global warming” hysterics “paleo-climate deniers.”
Grant-greedy climatologists seldom mention the Little Ice Age nowadays because doing so would invite discussion of the Medieval Warm Period, which preceded it. During the Medieval Warm Period, global temperatures often exceeded the global temperatures today. In fact, during the 12,000 years since the last glacial maximum, there have been several periods of extremely toasty temperatures, especially the Holocene Thermal Maximum, during which — again — temperatures were greater than those which have been encountered since 1850.
The period during which Captain Cook explored the Pacific was a particularly bitter decade during the Little Ice Age; anybody vaguely familiar with American history should remember reading of the suffering of our troops during the Battle of Valley Forge and other engagements of the Revolutionary War. The last was said to have been inaugurated by massive industrialization though that had already been going on for about a century in Europe before that. Neither the Medieval Warm Period nor the Little Ice Age can be blamed on human activity, though I’m sure that there will be those who try.
No, I am not a global warming denier. Temperatures are indeed increasing, as they would be expected to do in any postglacial or interglacial period, but to imagine mankind either causing or halting such purely natural phenomena is somewhere between vain self-congratulations and Chicken Little paranoia. I will not dwell in detail here about the questionable research, tweaked but still inaccurate computer model data or golf rush publish-or-perish predispositions of “anthropogenic global warming” hypothesis advocates but careful scrutiny of said promoters and their present strategies should be enough to alert anybody with the skill to read between the lines to remain skeptical. The world is not going to end tomorrow.
Andi Doughton’s submitted article belonged in the opinion section, not the front page.
Tom Munden is a resident of Kapaau
