In light of the recent news coverage of hurricane Ian, I was originally going to write this week’s blog about hurricanes and a history of their frequency and severity. I decided to write about this because, it seemed, every news story blamed the hurricane on climate change. This is the same media that yells “it’s weather, not climate!” when we, tongue in cheek, thank global warming for a spate of unseasonably warm January weather.
I was going to write something about how I believe in climate change (I do). I just don’t believe that the we, the flyspeck of mankind, can have any material effect on the Earth’s climate. And, how can a politician change the climate? Just like I doubt Vladimir Putin, like a villain in a James Bond movie, could change the climate for the worse if he wanted.
In doing my research I stumbled upon something that I’ve never heard of, and perhaps you haven’t either because, I assume, it doesn’t fit the current media narrative of the cause and effect of changes in our climate.
Wikipedia defines Paleoclimatology as “… the study of climates for which direct measurements were not taken. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to understand natural variation and the evolution of the current climate.”
Wow, my eyes were opened.
A virtual treasure trove of articles about our planet’s historical climate may be found at this Website. And these articles are not sensationalized anti- or pro-climate change dogma. These refer to scholarly peer-reviewed papers and studies that have various opinions on the Earth’s climate history.
Here’s a brief summary of a few of the articles I found:
As published in the journal Science, a 10,000 year reconstruction of water temperatures 1,500 feet below the surface of The Indonesian Throughflow show that temperatures of the water were significantly higher in the 7,500 BC to 1,000 AD period. See the chart here. BTW, you really should look at the chart. Lots of interesting notes there.
Key Phases of Human Evolution Coincide with Flickers in Eastern Africa’s Climate. Scientists pulled two 750-foot cores drilled in southern Ethiopia. They found that for tens of thousands of years conditions were stable. Until about 275,000 years ago this region went from lush vegetation with deep freshwater lakes to a desert-like state. From 60,000 to 10,000 years ago this area was the most arid. All of these changing conditions caused Homo sapiens to adapt their tools and human activities. Also, these climate changes fostered and influenced migrations from Africa.
In Mallorca, Spain an international team of researchers led by the University of South Florida, examined 4,000-year-old deposits in the region’s many cave systems. They discovered a previously unknown 20-centimeter sea-level rise that occurred 3,200 years ago when the polar ice caps melted naturally over 400 years. They also found that since the beginning of the 20th century the sea level has risen 18 centimeters.
What I found is that there is significant information available that points to the Earth’s climate as a constantly changing system that is influenced by many factors.
One article I found interesting was published in scientistswarning.org. This particular article, Paleoclimatology 101, seeks to discredit climate deniers. I’ll leave it to my readers to determine whether their arguments are convincing or not.
I did find this chart in the article interesting though:
Now you can’t boil a scientific conclusion down to one chart but, to me, this one speaks volumes:
The level of CO2 in the atmosphere strongly correlates to the temperature in the Antarctic (or vice-versa).
The level of CO2 in the atmosphere rises and falls in cycles of many years.
The level of CO2 in the atmosphere is no higher now than it was in several prior periods when there was little or no human activity.
Anyway, my intent here is not to change your mind about climate change. Like religion, we each have our own strongly held beliefs. And I’m not going to be the one who will change your beliefs – only you can do that.
But I was excited to learn about paleoclimatology!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.”
- St. Augustine
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update:
Last week I posted a cute video of Emmanuel the Emu who photobombed his owner, Taylor Blake.
Sadly, I must report that Emmanuel has contracted Avian Bird Flu which has killed 50 other chickens, ducks, swans and emus on the family’s Knuckle Bump Farms in South Florida. State officials have said that stagnant water puddles left behind by Hurricane Ian have caused the virus to run rampant.
Emmanuel has been cared for by Taylor who has been only getting a couple of hours of sleep a day. She reports that Emmanuel is now able to drink on his own and she is hoping for the best.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Restaurants I’d Like To Go To
Places I Think I’d Avoid
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~