Yesterday, Anthony Watts discussed the possibility that there may be global cooling if current sunspot inactivity continues. This is in stark contrast to predictions that global warming accelerates in 2009.
The present condition of climatic science reminds me of the story about blind men describing an elephant... trunk is a snake, tail is a rope, etc. Land use, CO2, sunspots, La Nina/El Nino, Pacific oscillations....I am certain of one thing: winter in the north will bring cold weather and more disease killing more people with that combination than summer kills with heat stroke and summer diseases. Warmth is the natural human environment; cold is an environment to which we have adapted or used our technology to survive.
So, if Mr. Watts is correct, our lives will be a little less pleasant than if Mr. Gore is correct.My perspective is that climate oscillations from a variety of factors are just one of those naturally occurring phenomenon we will learn to accept rather than control.
Sure, we do affect our local weather by cutting down forests or draining swamps or burning prairies, but the larger global climate goes well beyond our ability to alter significantly.Once the present hyperbole about climate change becomes passé, the discussion will return to matters that can be controlled or managed such as water management or land use or energy sources or pollution... since those matters are really what the red herring of climate change is all about anyway.
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