Global Warming....really?

I guess you cannot have a Blog without talking about global warming, it certainly is a popular subject these days (excuse me, I need to turn the heater up...we are going through a record cold spell here on the Central Coast of California). And as you can see this Nuclear Sub sure wishes it could get through this darn ice.

O.K. where was I...

My son is frustrated because even with my physics and engineering background, I am skeptical about global warming. Not skeptical about the planet warming (after all we do have thermometers), but skeptical that it is "man-made". But how can you not believe in global warming? The Academy Awards this past weekend gave "Fat Albert" Gore an Oscar for his so- called documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth", so it must be a real phenomenon...right? I thought it was hilarious that they announced the Oscars had gone "green", as all the stars arrived in their 5 mpg stretch limos and will probably fly home in their private jets.

Anyway back to the serious subject of global warming...

Here are some observations:

1/ The earth warmed by 0.7 degrees C (1.2 degrees F) during the 20th century.
2/ CO2 levels have risen the past century (although there have been warming periods in the past when CO2 levels went down...but let's forget that for now).

3/ Glaciers are melting, the Arctic ice pack is getting smaller. The ice pack around Greenland is getting smaller. The ice thickness in the middle of Greenland is getting thicker...hmm...we had better come back to that also.

4/ Polar bears are threatening to go on strike without icebergs to ride on, and I had a bee infestation in my vineyard last year.

5/ California has had one of the coldest spells in history during January 2007 and lost $10 billion in crops (obviously that's not "warming"...but the experts call it "climate change", and is the result of global warming..hmm).

6/ Fisherman on the west coast of Iceland this year have had difficulty getting out to sea because of freezing temperatures causing large ice flows. But the experts call this a "climactic aberration" - these guys are good, an answer for everything.

7/ Antarctica in 2007 is also not following the "computer models"...some of the ice flows are getting thicker, but that cannot be, the computers must be right....right?

8/ There have been many warming/cooling periods during the past centuries, and they have been acurately recorded during the past 500 years or so, long before the "industrial revolution". Why do the "experts" skip over that history?

Do you see where I am going with this? I don't know...and I wonder if the "experts" really do. Over 2000 scientists have come to a "consensus" that global warming is serious and it is caused by man. Many of these scientists rely on financial grants for continuing research. There are hundreds of thousands of other scientists and engineers in the world. I wonder what their opinions are?

Maybe we should consider the Kyoto protocol, but something bothers me. China and India are excluded, while the rest of the world must spend billions on reducing so-called greenhouse gases. Yet it's hard to buy anything that is not built in China and impossible to get computer or any other type of tech support without talking to someone in India. Something is wrong with that picture.

In Physics 101 we were taught that it is not science until it is proven. Until then it is a hypothesis. "Man-made " global warming has not been proven.

So, I will remain in the minority arguing against this "environmental/political" issue that will not be resolved for years....maybe not in our lifetime. In the meantime, during this very cold winter...keep "warm" out there.