The Freezing Thaw

No one really knows if the debate on "Global Warming" will ever cease. My guess is that it won't as climate change is a constant ongoing process, not some odd phenomenon that began back in the 1970's. There are many problems with the various debate within "Global Warming" but I'll just stick to a few.

The first is that it should not be called "Global Warming." While the planet is increasing in temperature in general, there are many flukes that occur with the climate. Some areas are getting more rain than usual, some are getting significantly less. Some areas have a later snowfall than usual, while others receive an inexplicable amount. (Take for example the snowfall on the Northeastern part of the U.S. for about a week in February.) The title of "Global Warming" does nothing more than confuse old people and Republicans.

The second is that Humans have this unrelenting urge to classify everything into sections, chapters, classes, sects, etc. Most people are debating whether climate change is a man made disaster, or a natural process of the earth. I say it's both. As I stated earlier, the Earth's climate constantly changes and the trend does seem to be going to a warmer temperature. Taking that into account and looking at the history of the Earth's temperature for the past few millennia, the Earth is still at a fairly cool phase. In fact, depending on how far you want to stretch those sections we like to divide everything into, we are still in an ice age. Sounds absurd, I know, but right now the Earth has two polar ice caps and that is a rare moment in the last 4.5 billion years of Earth's history. Keeping all of this in mind, (while sounding like I don't believe in climate change) I certainly don't think the millions of pounds of Carbon Dioxide we pump into the atmosphere is exactly a great idea. Let alone the cutting down of trees or the spoilage of our water systems.

But let's also keep in mind there is a lot about this planet that we don't know. When the Earth is mostly covered in ice, a lot of the sunlight is reflected back off the planet and is fairly useless in helping to warm the Earth. If this is the case, and most of the Earth is covered in ice, how does the planet warm back up to the state we are at now?

In addition, when the planet is at a state like it is now, and has been before, the oceans absorb the suns rays, thereby warming the ocean and melting the ice. If there have been points when no ice caps covered the poles and mostly water covering the planet, then how does the planet cool back down to an ice age like the last one we had (and still are in now) 10,000 years ago?

Regardless of the fact that the climate is changing or why, the real issue is what do we do when it comes to a point of displacing people? The Himalayan glaciers are retreating. Those glaciers are the source points for the Indus, Yangtze, Yellow and other major rivers. These rivers support half of the world's population. If those rivers run dry, do we cram 3 billion people into other parts of the world, or do they die? Perhaps those are the questions we should be asking.