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Global Warming

One of the most hotly debated new items of the past decade has been global warming. Ok, the "hotly debated" pun was cheap. If my pun was absurd, then perhaps the way most people seem to whole-heartedly accept global warming as fact is just as absurd.

First of all, I am not denying that the planet has been warming recently. I am not denying that we, as humans, may be impacting the global climate, and I am not denying that we should consider how our actions effect the planet. What does concern me is the short-sightedness I think many people have. It's easy to think what is occurring in our lives now is new or greater in magnitude than what has come before us. However, if we look closely at history, we can usually find examples that show no matter how extreme situations in our lives may seem, they have been occurring long before we as humans were walking the Earth.

Case in point: The Dust Bowl days of the 1930's basically reduced the central plains into a desert. Yes, poor farming practices of the time helped to contribute to the problem, but most of the effects were from the harsh weather conditions of the time. If the same conditions were occurring today; imagine the global warming hysteria that would result.

Greenland, many hundreds of years ago was inhabited and named Greenland for a reason. The Vikings had settlements there during the "Medieval Warm Period" of 900 - 1300 A.D. The lush green landscape led to settling until the mini ice-age that occurred between 1300 and 1850. Yes, that's right, scientists often refer to this period as "the little ice age." In fact, the accounts of the early settlers in America refer to the harsh and unrelenting winters that the early Colonists faced. Parts of the Chesapeake Bay near Baltimore would freeze over completely during many winters of the 1700's and 1800's.

Before the "little ice age" conditions in Europe were comparatively balmy and there was much prosperity as the climate was less harsh. It appears that cycles of cold and warm have affected most of the planet for thousands and thousands of years.

So, what's my point? As I stated at the beginning, I am not denying the contributions that we as humans may have had on the climate. What does bother me is that we blindly accept sensationalist news without digging deeper. Yes, weather has been extreme lately. Hurricane Katrina in the USA last year will stick in my mind for the rest of my life. However, we are not experiencing anything new. Life on this earth is both beautiful and tragic at the same time. The same summer sun that warms a child's face or carries the wings of a butterfly also creates the hurricanes and drought that can cause destruction and death. Life on Earth is a balance and is very cyclical. Have we as humans upset that balance. I honestly don't know. I just hope we all will realize that what we have experienced has been experienced before. Yes Atlantic hurricanes have been numerous and intense over the past few years. However, with the increase in Atlantic hurricanes, there has been a corresponding decrease in Pacific hurricanes. That is nature in balance even if it seems extreme to us.

So, before you just accept all the global warming hype; do some research and then decide for yourself.

Learn more about this author, Michael Nedrow.
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