Writes Steyn:
One day, the world will marvel at the environmental hysteria of our time, and the deeply damaging corruption of science in the cause of an alarmist cult. The best thing this week's conference could do is inculcate a certain modesty, not least in Senator Ian Campbell, about an issue that is almost entirely speculative. We don't know how or why climate changes. We do know it's changed dramatically throughout the planet's history, including the so-called "little Ice Age" beginning in 600, when I was still driving a Ford Oxcart, and that, by comparison, the industrial age has been a time of relative climate stability. But, of course, as with that "hockey stick", it depends how you draw the graph.
Question: Why do most global warming advocates begin their scare statistics with "since 1970"?
As in, "since 1970" there's been global surface warming of half a degree or so.
Because from 1940 to 1970, temperatures fell.
Now why would that be?
Who knows? Maybe it was Hitler. Maybe world wars are good for the planet.
Or maybe we should all take a deep breath of CO2 and calm down.
Wow. Just as we pulled out of Vietnam the temperatures stopped falling and started rising. That's as good a causal link that I've seen the global warmers assert. Too far fetched? Pehaps.
Or maybe the cause of the reverse around 1970 is becasue that's when the baby boomers started seriously yacking. And when they finally grow too tired to yell at the kids on their lawns, the greenhouse gass emissions will slow down again.
Now that's an emission cap I can support.
