Editor: Global warming has captivated many. The presupposition is that it is manmade and can effectively be stopped through the destruction of our economy.
Here are the findings of imminent climatologist Dr. John Christy of the University of Alabama.
With NASA, Christy created a satellite-based set of global temperature indicators for the United Nations. He believed that ground temperature readings were highly subject to inaccuracy because they were often set in urban areas where temperature increases may be caused by further urbanization, not by global warming.
His satellites measured the lower troposphere from 0 elevation to 20,000 feet, since a greenhouse effect would trap heat at higher levels. His finding was a warming factor of .06 degrees Centigrade per decade, far less than .15 degree Centigrade measured at the surface. With the fact that there has been no variation in average hurricane creation during the past 30 years, Christy believes that humans are not a significant factor, if at all, in global warming. Since 1848, when temperatures began to be tracked, the Earth has gone through about 30-year cycles of warming and cooling. The ice caps have also gone through periods of thinning and thickening.
In the 1970s, after 33 years of cooling, alarmists spoke of an impending ice age. Since then, Earth has gone through a period of warming, which is normal, and the alarmists now speak of another global calamity.
One thing is for sure: Such predictions of disaster sell newspapers, raise TV ratings and get scientists federal grants. Despite the incentive to predict doom, most climatologists do not support the theory that the end is near. They never seem to get much airtime, however.
Scott Hurban, Tracy