Greenland and the Grand Canyon Prove Humans Did Not Cause and Cannot Stop Global Warming.
Nevertheless, Solar and Wind Energy Are Necessary to Reduce Pollution. (Revised)
The well-known but often ignored history of the Earth from its formation 2 billion years ago shows that extreme climate change has recurred multiple times before humans existed. No geologists dispute that there have been five major ice ages, with glaciers covering much of northern Europe and all of Canada down into our northern states. No geologists dispute that following each major ice age was a major global warming. It is therefore logical to expect major climate changes to continue to occur due to powerful natural forces, which humans cannot possibly influence.
Expecting nature to be constant, i.e., to not vary, and believing there would be no global warming without human intervention, is illogical and contrary to the history of planet Earth. Meanwhile, to think humans can overwhelm natural forces is wishful thinking, a gross delusion. Instead of investing in fruitless efforts to stop or reverse global warming, based on the misguided belief that fossil fuels are the culprit and not natural planetary forces, major investments should be focused on adapting to ongoing warming, which could last for thousands of years or more. We are probably just in the middle of the 5th Great Warming cycle. Investments in solar, wind, and hydro energy are valuable to reduce pollution caused by fossil fuels, but they will never serve to effect climate change, except possibly in the most marginal, insignificant way.
One doesn’t need to be educated in geology to understand that the Grand Canyon was created millions of years before humans existed through powerful water erosion due to enormous river flows. Geologists have proven that much of the United States was covered by water before humans appeared, that water coming from melting glaciers during one of the great warmings due to natural planetary forces, not fossil fuels.
Strangely, those espousing the conventional wisdom that fossil fuels are causing global warming seem to be ignoring the causes of the five great ice ages and the five great warmings. How can they exclude that the use of fossil fuels concurrent with global warming is not cause-and-effect but just a coincidence? Is it reasonable to expect fossil fuels to outweigh natural planetary forces? The corollary of the theory that fossil fuels are the main factor of the current warming is that humans could avert a future ice age by burning fossil fuels! Is that realistic?
Geologists have irrefutable evidence that the Sahara was once a verdant pampa and became a desert long before humans burned fossil fuels. What caused the Sahara to become a desert? What caused Greenland to become barren after being verdant with vegetation and home to various species of large and small animals two million years ago, as Danish researchers determined from DNA samples? (v. The New York Times article by Carl Zimmer, December 7, 2022, Oldest Known DNA Offers Glimpse of a Once-Lush Arctic) The causes have all been natural forces: slight changes in the Earth’s axis and tilt, slight changes in the Earth’s orbit, slight changes in the Sun’s temperature. How can anyone logically expect humans to be able to counter such natural causes, more potent by orders of magnitude than whatever humans can muster? How can anyone logically expect nature to be constant, and that climate changes must be caused by humans? What is logical is to expect and prepare for changes due to natural forces which we cannot influence.
© Edward Sonnino 2023
August 13, 2023
