I am always struck by their glib pronouncements that rising sea levels have to be cause by humans.
Did humans cause the "little Ice Age"?
It should be no secret that the earth warms and cools for a variety of reasons and, as is being discovered,that warming or cooling can be sudden. Why do they assume that it has to be gradual and measured?
There are many things in Nature that are not.
Earth warms and fish pens...suddenly, I feel like taking Monday off and go wet a line.
Adder -- Did humans cause the "little Ice Age"?Well put.
aruanan -- Europe was still warming up from the Little Ice Age in the latter half of the second millennium.
dirtboy -- Most likely? Hasn't this nimrod ever heard of the Little Ice Age, and the warmer period prior to that, that would have affected sea levels?
So, if carbon emissions really were to blame, it would be vastly better for the environment to burn hydrocarbon fuels than it was to burn wood, since there were so few people around then compared to now. :') IOW, the climate is natural.William the Conqueror's Global WarmingLloyd Keigwin, a researcher from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution... concluded that although sea surface temperature (SST) in the northern Saragasso Sea is now about 1 degree centigrade warmer than 400 years ago during the Little Ice Age, it is about 1 degree cooler than about 1,000 years ago during the Medieval Warm Period. Keigwin's conclusions are based on his study of sediment accumulation in the Saragasso Sea... Eleventh century society burned no gasoline. There were no electric power plants to burn coal. No chemical plants emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Airplanes, reputed to emit as much of the greenhouse gases as the eighth most polluting nation, were still 900 years away from being invented.
by Steven J. Milloy
I like the closing sentence -- "future decision-making could be made based on scientific data and not on political expediency". I wouldn't count on it, but that would be great.Caves reveal clues to UK weatherAt Pooles Cavern in Derbyshire, it was discovered that the stalagmites grow faster in the winter months when it rains more. Alan Walker, who guides visitors through the caves, says the changes in rainfall are recorded in the stalactites and stalagmites like the growth rings in trees. Stalagmites from a number of caves have now been analysed by Dr Andy Baker at Newcastle University. After splitting and polishing the rock, he can measure its growth precisely and has built up a precipitation history going back thousands of years. His study suggests this autumn's rainfall is not at all unusual when looked at over such a timescale but is well within historic variations. He believes politicians find it expedient to blame a man-made change in our weather rather than addressing the complex scientific picture.
by Tom Heap