Beating a dead horse (yet another assault on the climate change hoax)

I watched the movie, "Pandora's Promise" the other day. I admit it gave me a sense of smug satisfaction to see a bunch of environmentalists finally realize that nuclear power is the most ecological power possible. For the most part, the movie was informative and entertaining. They actually showed the numbers supporting the benefits of nuclear. And I learned there have been people living cancer-free in Chernobyl since about a year after the catastrophe that was supposed to render half of Europe permanently uninhabitable. I was absolutely amazed by that.

But, being environmentalists, they couldn't make it through an entire film without banging the war drum for Anthropogenic Climate Change. Which I once found only mildly annoying. Now that the Cult of Gaia has become the official doctrine of the land, however, I can no longer stand the ignorance of these people.

First of all, they went on about CO2 emissions. It has been a documented, proven scientific fact for some two decades now that CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by a matter of centuries. So CO2 emissions cannot be part of the problem. A cause must precede an effect. On top of that, CO2 is hardly a toxin. CO2 is critical to plant life. More CO2 means more plants. Just ask any gardener or even aquarist who uses supplemental CO2 to improve plant growth. So when I hear any Gaian complain about CO2 levels I know they are ignorant of even the most basic science. This makes it impossible to take them seriously afterwards.

Secondly, and this is the one that really makes me want to paint my face and head to war, they insist on saying that anybody who disagrees with them is a "denier". The use of this word, and the tone that accompanies it, pretty much amounts to calling people "heretics". And that's exactly the sort of ad hominem attack you expect from people who cannot support their position with data.

The one Gaian went so far as to say that those who "deny" ACC simply cherry-pick data to support their position. This is at least a rational accusation. But it's also demonstrably false. And here are some globally-recognized facts that are not subject to cherry-picking but which definitely support my assertion that ACC is a hoax being perpetrated in the name of social engineering;

1) CO2 emissions, the great boogeyman of the Cult of Gaia, do not cause climate change. So why are CO2 emissions at the center of virtually every ACC debate? They are a non-issue

2) Human contributions to the known and suspected greenhouse gasses amount to less than half a percent of the total levels. So even if humans ceased to exist there would still be more than 99.5% of the greenhouse levels Gaians so vociferously preach about.

3) The Milankovitch Theory. This is the big one. While the average person on the street may not know this, the Earth has been cycling between cold and warm spells for a very, very long time. This current warm spell started some 18,000 years ago-- long before the Hummer or even coal power. And Milutin Milankovitch calculated the cause of this cycle roughly a century ago. In the early 1900s, Mr. Milankovitch calculated that the Earth would go through glacial periods on a roughly 100,000 year cycle. And every bit of evidence we've discovered since then have supported his calculations. Variations in the Earth's orbit and the tilt of the Earth's axis combine to create variations in the amount of heat our planet absorbs from the sun. This is known science. It's been accepted fact for a century. So how is it cherry-picking to say that this effect is doing now what is has done the last several glacial cycles?

What the Gaians are doing is simple social engineering. They know the average person is too busy worrying about what Lady Gaga is wearing to be bothered to read anything remotely scientific. They count on your ignorance to make you gullible and easily manipulated. They are doing exactly what the Aztecs (or was it the Mayans?) once did. The Aztec/Mayan priests understood solar eclipses. They had records of them and calendars to predict them. But they knew the average peasant was ignorant of eclipses. So the Aztecs/Mayans would display their "power" by holding ceremonies when the sun was due to be "eaten". Just as the world went dark and all seemed lost, the priests would perform a sacrifice-- lo and behold! The sun was reborn and so was the peasants' faith in the power of the priests. It was all smoke and mirrors.

And so it is with the Gaians. They know the Milankovitch theory is proven fact. They know CO2 is not an issue. But they also know that you can be made to believe there is a problem. And they know that by making you believe there is a problem they can then manipulate you into following them down whatever primrose path they choose to take you down.

To any Gaians who happen across this post and wish to challenge me, your task is simple. You believe humans are causing more warming than would naturally occur. So all you have to do is demonstrate what warming would occur right now without any human involvement. It really should be a simple task. Just compare this interglacial warm spell with the last seven or eight the Earth has experienced. See what the normal variation is between those seven or eight interglacial warm spells. Then compare this current interglacial warm spell to those previous ones to see if there is any statistically significant difference between this one, with evil humans present, and the previous ones. That should have been the first step in all this, see if there really is an athropogenic component to this current warming trend.

But I want to issue a further challenge to the Gaians as well as give other Freethinkers something to ponder. In the Jurassic age, arguably the high-point of the dinosaurs, there was no polar ice and probably little snow except at the highest elevations. So why is the reduction of polar ice now something to fear? The dinosaurs lived in a tropical paradise. Can you prove we wouldn't have that again if the icecaps melted entirely? Are you even familiar with how the hydrologic cycle works? You do realize that ice at the poles is water that could be sustaining life elsewhere on the planet, right? If the icecaps melted we would have increased rainfall globally. Combined with the increased CO2 levels we would have increased plant growth. Can you prove that a warmer Earth than we have now would not result in expanded tropics? Can you prove that life would not flourish if the Earth continued warming like it flourished millions of years ago, before the ice ages began? Because my belief is that the best thing we could do for humanity, and all lif on the planet, is to deliberately melt the Antarctic ice. That would reduce solar reflectivity, allow the Earth to absorb more heat from the sun, and free up precious water for all creatures to drink. My way gives us longer growing seasons, more CO2, and more rainfall. How does this in any way seem wrong? Can you Gaians prove your way is better than mine? Would you really prefer another glacial age to another Jurassic age?

If you Gaians want to accuse me of cherry-picking data you have to prove the Milankovitch Theory is wrong. Or you have to prove that this interglacial warm spell is going to be significantly hotter or last significantly longer than history would predict. And that this longer/warmer warm spell is inherently a bad thing. Those are fundamental facts, not trivial bits of data. So put up or shut up.