Chatter Box
Global Warming
Two Degrees of Psychosis
William Nordhaus, an economist at Yale University, is responsible for today’s concern about our world being on its way to its
sizzling oblivion.
As an economist, he decided in an off-handed way, that if temperatures rose by two degrees Celsius, the world would start a heat spiral. The meteorological and scientific basis used by this economist was not known in the year 2018.
That would have to be created by other scientists later.
- LONG AGO -
To support his conclusions, researchers looked at temperature changes during the mini-ice age from 1450-1850. They determined that indeed the world was now getting warmer – thank goodness.
Krakatoa’s volcanic explosion on August 27, 1883 brought us a few “years of no summer.” This mini-ice age officially ended a decade
or two later.
- UP 2 DEGREES CELSIUS -
Going forward, scientists now state that if temperatures rise two degrees Celsius, which is 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the world will enter a hot spiral of death. Their claim is that ‘from now on every day will bring a temperature disaster!’ Scott Barrett, a climatologist notes that the target of 2 degree Celsius was for political reasons. What??
- THE OBVIOUS -
Let’s take a moment to pause and explore the obvious and connect those facts to our fears of global warming also called climate change.
From 8000 BC to 4000 BC world temperatures were high, then they began to drop.
Until the year 2000, world temperatures continued to plunge downward. DOWN?? Had the Industrial Revolution not caused warming, we would have been sunk into an ice age.
Ah, But is the warming happening too quickly?
Scientists can only examine the last one hundred years. Without the large picture of 11,000 years of temperatures, the narrow comparisons within 100 years become irrelevant such as the mini ice age happening in the 1700’s barely two hundred years ago.
A warming period a thousand years ago was again a small blip in the larger picture. So today, are we a blip or a long term situation?
10,000 years ago it was warmer than today. There were no SUV’s around then. For the last 800,000 years the earth has had sudden spikes in temperatures and just as sudden drops. They have been attributed to changes in continents and
seaways.
- SEASONS -
We have twelve months every year. Some months are winter. If the temperature goes up by two or three degrees C or 3.6 F, do we care? No.
We have some months that are spring, and some months that are fall. If the temperature goes up by two or three degrees, do we care?
No.
NOTE. The plants will care because they will have a longer growing season.
- SUMMER -
We are left with the summer, our warmest season. Summer officially goes from June 21 to September 21, more or less. Some of those days are warm, and some are hot. The hot days are our concern, because we are told the world will end if we have too many hot days.
Now pay close attention and see if that makes sense.
- HOTTEST DAYS –
The potential for 'the hottest days'
of the summer goes from about June 21stthrough August 25th.
That’s 64 days. Sixty-four
Not every day is hot (95 or more), but let’s estimate a high number of days. Let’s go with 35. Does that sound reasonable?
The hottest days in New England were over fifty years ago, and 3 of them over 100 years ago.
A reasonable super high temperature would be 103 degrees F. Would you survive 106 degrees?
Sure. People do it every summer in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Lake Havasu and elsewhere. Check a map.
- GLOBAL WARMING? -
Consider an imaginary global warming heat wave beginning tomorrow.
The mornings would not be the hottest part of the day. Maybe by 11:00 am the temperatures would be hot enough to count. Noon through 5:00pm the heat is on for sure. Around 6:00 pm our temperatures are dropping.
Observing the hottest part of the day, there are usually seven hours where the warmth is the highest.
If there are 35 days of the highest temperatures, and 7 hours each of those days are the hottest, we have 245 hours of dangerous global warming a year. All of which are far below temperatures in the desert or the interior of the continents.
Check that globe!
Who is going to be hurt by two or three degrees Celsius added to world temperatures? Nobody. The plants will like it though, they will have a longer growing season in which they will absorb their most important nutrient: Carbon Dioxide.
In summary, adding 2 or 3 degrees Celsius will make no difference of any consequence to our lives.
bfc 2021
© Bruce F. Carter All Rights Reserved 2021
For an article about carbon dioxide. Click here.