Is It Fair To Blame Global Warming On Mankind?

Is it fair to blame “Global Warming” on mankind? By Rex A. Crouch

Copyrighted © by Rex A. Crouch 2008

I frequently see the last 10,000 years of Earth’s climate history based on core data from one lake, or a glacier, or some other source. Given this 10,000 year dataset we are shown that mankind is causing global warming. I cringe every time I see a 10,000 year dataset for global warming but have diligently kept my mouth shut. I focus on exploration geology and subsequently I try to stay away from the subject of global warming because it is so politically charged. Despite the volatile nature of the subject I am violating my own personal rule on global warming to ask a question. Is it fair to blame “Global Warming” on mankind? The 10,000 year data set is just a scratch on the skin of the Cenozoic. Yes, this is the timeframe in which humans populated the earth; but the earth is much older than 10,000 years. I personally cannot ignore the whole picture. The Sauk Sequence shows us that global sea levels have changed dramatically six times since the Proterozoic, with drastic transgressions, and regressions. In addition to these global changes in sea level, there are corresponding mass extinction events. It is fair to associate global sea level changes with global temperature changes. Life on our planet lives in a system of differential equations. It is also fair to believe that our climate is a system of differential equation with peaks of global warming and global cooling that exceeds the 10,000 year dataset. This is not a denial that the development of human infrastructures have impacted the climate, but rather a request that

we acknowledge that global warming probably took place at least five time before humans ever walked the earth. This implies to me that global warming in a natural process that will occur whether humans are here on not. Said otherwise, humans are not the cause of climate change. The belief that global warming is manmade has nearly become a religion in itself, wherein the church of global warming is ready to torture the heretics. Heretics of the church of global warming are hatefully called “Deniers.” Please don’t burn me at the stake, but I accept the full scientific explanation including the Earth’s entire history—not the data cherry picking. As long as Earth is a living planet, it will be a dynamic planet. The city of New Orleans was built on silt, subsequently, the city is sinking at a rate of 2.5 centimeters per years, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Volcanoes are forming new islands in the South Pacific, and there is nothing we can do to stop. It is arrogant to believe that humans can control nature. In lieu of plans, summits, agreements, and other political activities that focus on stopping a natural process, I think we should simply be better stewards of the planet we use, as we discuss how to live with global warming, or global cooling, or whatever climate change we are dealt, and avoid becoming another mass extinction statistic.