Articles Tagged "Mark R. Warner"

To:
President Barack Obama
Sen. Jim Webb

A mere 20,000 years ago, massive ice sheets covered much of the earth. The sparse population led a cold hungry existence.

Then just 12,000 years ago, there was dramatic natural global warming - ice sheets melted, sea levels rose and the warming seas expelled carbon dioxide. The warmth and extra carbon dioxide plant food in the atmosphere encouraged the spread of grasslands, forests, animals and humans over lands once covered by thick, barren sheets of ice.

None of these beneficial climate changes were caused by emissions from the camp fires of the Cave Men. Since then earth has experienced a see-saw of minor natural heating and cooling. The most recent warming phase started at the depth of the Little Ice Age about 300 years ago, before James Watt invented the steam engine. There were no emissions from cars, trucks, trains, planes or cement plants, but still the planet warmed up.

Climate fluctuations continue in modern times, but not in step with industrial man’s carbon dioxide emissions. When industry declined in the Great Depression of the 1930s, CO2 emissions fell but temperatures rose to a peak. Then during the immediate post war boom in industry, emissions soared but temperatures fell and there were fears of a new ice age starting. Now, since the start of the new century, with emissions from China and India booming, world temperatures are again falling.