THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 214, November 14, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WHAT ABOUT THE POLES? THE GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS
ARE AT IT AGAIN, SHRIEKING ABOUT "ICE MELT AT THE POLES"
By Dennis T. Avery
THE FACT OF THE EARTH'S NATURAL WARMING & COOLING CYCLES VERSUS THE THEORY OF HUMAN-INDUCED
CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE: THE CLAIM THAT MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING IS CAUSING THE POLAR CAPS
TO MELT AND SEA LEVELS TO RISE TO CATASTROPHIC FLOOD LEVELS, SPELLING THE DOOM OF HUMAN PROGRESS &
CIVILIZATION -- SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS BY TRUE SCHOLARS & SCIENTISTS, OR PROPAGANDA DISSEMINATED BY POLITICAL
ENVIRONMENTALISTS, GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS, & PSEUDO-SCIENTISTS?
FULL STORY:
“The relentless grip of the Arctic Ocean that defied man for centuries is melting away,” warned Doug Struck in the
Washington Post.
“The sea ice reaches only half as far as it did 50 years ago.
In the Summer of 2006, it shrank to a record low. This
Summer, the ice pulled back even more, by an area nearly
the size of Alaska.”
NASA’s James Hansen keeps claiming that carbon dioxide is “pushing the climate past its tipping point.”
British banks are sending “volunteers” to the Arctic to see for themselves the loss of sea ice, and to view the
“endangered” polar bears — whose numbers have tripled in recent years.
Ho hum. Just another day at the scare factory.
Point one: We’ve known for 20 years about the earth’s moderate, natural 1,500-year climate cycle, which we discovered
in the Greenland and Antarctic ice cores. The ice shows seven previous global warmings in the past 12,000 years. Two of
these — 8,000 years ago and 5,000 years ago — were, for many centuries, substantially warmer than today. The
Greenland and Antarctic ice caps didn’t melt.
Point two: This can’t be global warming. (1) The Arctic was also warm in the 1920s; the Russians say it happens every
70 years or so. (2) The Antarctic Ice is now at a modern high. The Antarctic has been cooling since the 1960s, according
to Peter Doran’s 2002 paper in Nature. Thanks to warming’s additional snowfall, the East Antarctic ice cap is
currently gaining about 45 billion tons of ice per year.
Neels Reeh, of the University of Denmark, says that another 1 degree Celsius of warming would melt enough Greenland
ice to raise sea levels perhaps half an inch per year — but added ice in the Antarctic would lower sea level almost that
much. The net increase has been six inches per century, and it isn’t expected to change.
Why not? Cliff Ollier, well-known geoscientist from the University of Western Australia, writes to say that Hansen is
just a climate modeler who doesn’t understand either ice caps or their melting. Ollier thinks the whole ice cap melting
thing is a figment of the climate modelers’ computerized imaginations, conjured up to ensure that we’re properly
frightened of global warming. Otherwise, the grant money might dry up.
If the media only reported facts, who would be frightened about sea levels rising at the current rate of six inches per
century? Who’d be frightened by the earth warming just two-tenths of a degree Celsius over the past 70- years?
Ice caps don’t melt from the surface down; they melt only at the edges. Once the edges are melted, further ice loss
depends on the uphill weight of the ice built up over previous centuries. The ice flows — reluctantly, because it’s so
cold — on the warmer ice at its base, with the upper, brittle ice carried downhill by its own weight. When a chunk of ice
reaches the edge of the cap, it falls off — and the AP writes a news story. That’s neither melting nor collapse.
The Greenland ice cap is 2-3 kilometers deep and much of its ice lies inside a basin that won’t slide off. Its undisturbed
ice dates back at least 105,000 years. The temperatures over the ice are well below freezing, at about -30 degrees Celsius
in the north, and -20 degrees Celsius in the south.
The Antarctic ice cores date back more than 760,000 years, in the coldest place on earth. The lowest recorded
temperature was -89 Celsius at Vostok in 1983. The highest Vostok temperature taken was -19 C in 1992 — still far below
freezing.
By the way, even the southernmost polar bear population is doing fine in the Davis Strait, with higher numbers and some
of the largest bears yet seen.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior policy analyst for the United
States Department of State, where he won the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He is the co-author, with
atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, of the book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years (Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Readers may write Avery at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421. Email:
cgfi@rica.net
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume IX, 2007
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity