Global warming: What’s the cause?

By Roger Steele (Contact) | Alex City Outlook

Published Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the weather quite a bit.

Part of the reason for my newfound fascination concerns the recent snow events we have experienced over the past few days. Considering it never seems to snow in Alabama, especially over the past 10 years, it’s really an occasion of epic proportion when we see it snow on two separate days in a single week.

Another reason for my interest relates to recent debates over global warming. Some politicians have used snowstorms in the South and East as evidence the earth is not warming as many climate scientists claim. To them, it seems ridiculous to assert our planet is teetering on the brink of a catastrophic heat wave when places like Washington D.C. and Troy, Ala., are covered in a blanket of snow at least 6 inches deep.

To be honest, I’ve never put much stock in these types of allegations. Using an individual weather event, like a snowstorm or a hurricane, to prove the earth is cooling or warming seems outlandish and just plain wrong. The better method is to look at long term trends in weather patterns and temperature changes to determine if we are experiencing a dramatic change in the earth’s climate.

Until recently, I believed there might be something to global warming. This is not surprising, considering national media outlets endlessly report global warming as a fact based on an ironclad scientific consensus that no sane person would deny.

Nevertheless, I’ve always been troubled about this so-called consensus. To me, advocates of global warming always seem to rely on evidence no one really understands. I’ve always had a feeling these claims were based more on faith, something akin to religious belief, rather than relying on evidence alone.

Plus, there are powerful political and economic forces that stand to benefit from global warming being a “fact.” In many ways I suspect we’ve been hearing a sales pitch about the earth’s imminent destruction so that some can profit from our fears.

This uneasiness of mine was reinforced recently when I read several disturbing reports about leading scientists in the global warming “consensus” apparently falsifying evidence and exaggerating their data in order to prove the earth is warming.

To make matters even more suspicious, a report was recently released stating that since 1995 there is no statistical evidence the earth is actually warming. When you connect this revelation with growing evidence that the medieval period was actually warmer than it is today, you can see there is reason to doubt what the global warming advocates have been peddling for years. Global warming might be nothing more than a natural occurrence, rather than a result of carbon emissions.

Now, I’m not claiming global warming is absolutely false. What I am stating is we should be skeptical of doomsday warnings that require us to alter our lives in significant ways, especially if there are good reasons to doubt these claims and if someone stands to profit.

After all, there are more compelling reasons to alter our lifestyle, like reducing our dependence on foreign oil. If we can develop “green” technologies that replace oil as the driving engine of our economy, then I’m all for it. Sending our money to countries that potentially harbor terrorists is a threat anyone can understand, unlike global warming.

Roger Steele is general manager and advertising director of The Alexander City Outlook. His column appears each Thursday.

---

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?

---