The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • Times News Services
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Sports
    • NFL
    • NBA/WNBA
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Motorsports
    • Soccer
    • NCAA
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Other
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Military History
    • Life
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Themes
  • Communities
  • Shopping
    • Stores
    • Coupons
    • Daily Double
    • Promotion
    • How It Works
  • Videos
    • Two Guys
    • Birnbaum on Washington
    • Liz Glover
    • Amanda Carpenter
    • Morning Briefing
    • Documentaries
    • Joe Giganti
    • Video Game Minute
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • National

    PULLEN: GOP came unmoored in last decade – it hurt

  • National

    WILLIAMS: Finding gratitude in difficult times

  • Sports

    Leonsis in line to buy Wizards, Verizon Center

  • National

    3 airlines fined $175,000 for stranding passengers

  • National

    Ruling hanging was a suicide leaves bloggers at loss for words

  • Business

    Low-cost buses fill holiday travelers' needs

  • Politics

    A-listers, fundraisers attend White House state dinner

Saturday, November 4, 2006

The real climate catastrophe

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
  • Videos

More Stories

  • D.C. sports icon, Wizards owner Pollin dead at 85
  • Leonsis in line to buy Wizards, Verizon Center
  • Medical pot gets social
  • Soccer fans' ire stoked

By

Our planet is again warming slightly, and the weather keeps taking unexpected turns. Many scientists say this is hardly unprecedented, cause for alarm, or proof that humans are now the dominant factor in climate change. Others disagree strongly, and point to every snowstorm, hurricane, deluge or drought as proof that urgent action is needed to avoid imminent climate catastrophe.

"Climate change is real," say the latter. True, but it's always been real.

Four times, mile-thick ice sheets smothered Europe and North America. A thousand years ago, Vikings raised crops and cattle in Greenland. Four centuries later, the Norsemen were frozen out by the Little Ice Age, and priests performed exorcisms on glaciers advancing toward Swiss villages. The globe warmed in 1850-1940, cooled for the next 35 years, then warmed slightly again.

Detroit experienced six snowstorms in April 1868, frosts in August 1869, a 98-degree heat wave in June 1874, and ice-free lakes in January 1877. Wisconsin's record high of 114 degrees in July 1936 was followed five years later by a record July low of 46. In 1980, five years after Newsweek's "new little ice age" cover story, Washington, D.C. endured 67 days above 90 degrees.

Studies by National Academy of Sciences, NOAA, Danish and other scientists raise additional inconvenient truths that contradict catastrophic climate change hypotheses, computer models and predictions. The "hockey stick" temperature graph (which claimed 1990-2000 was the hottest decade in 1,000 years) broke under scrutiny.

The Southern Hemisphere has not warmed in the past 25 years. Interior Greenland and Antarctica are gaining ice mass, not losing it. Gulf Stream circulation has not slowed. And the U.S. is yet to be hit by a major hurricane in 2006.

Simply put, nothing suggests that predominantly human influences have suddenly supplanted the natural forces that clearly caused climate and weather cycles in past centuries. Yet, many still demand immediate action to prevent future climate change.

Few appreciate how costly such actions would be, especially for the world's poorest citizens.

According to government and private studies, the Kyoto Protocol would cost the U.S. up to $348 billion in 2012; force average American families to pay an extra $2,700 annually for energy and consumer goods; and destroy 1.3 million jobs in U.S. minority communities.

Globally, Kyoto carries a $1 trillion annual price tag in regulatory bills, higher energy costs and lost productivity, according to economist Bjorn Lomborg. That's several times what it would cost to provide the world with clean drinking water and sanitation -- which would prevent millions of deaths annually from intestinal diseases.

12Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Commenting is disabled for this entry.
If you feel there is still something worth mentioning about this entry please contact the author or the site admin.

Ask a Question

You Report

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?

Top Stories

Most Read

  1. EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling
  2. Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner
  3. Fenty trails Gray in D.C. poll
  4. Conservatives seek test for RNC funds
  5. Food snobs fork over $225 for taste of heritage turkey
More Top Stories »
  1. Company that repaired Chairman Gray's house lacked license
  2. Religious leaders vow civil disobedience on anti-life issues
  3. PRUDEN: Obama's due process doctrine
  4. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  5. Green energy stimulus growing few jobs

Most Shared

  1. EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling
  2. The United Socialist States of America
  3. PRUDEN: Obama's due process doctrine
  4. Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner
  5. Fenty trails Gray in D.C. poll
More Top Stories »
  1. Conservatives seek test for RNC funds
  2. EDITORIAL: Terrorists use Democratic talking points
  3. Food snobs fork over $225 for taste of heritage turkey
  4. LETTER TO EDITOR: When family ties die
  5. Religious leaders vow civil disobedience on anti-life issues

Most Commented

  1. EDITORIAL: Hiding evidence of global cooling
  2. Top Republican lawmakers not attending State Dinner
  3. Conservatives seek test for RNC funds
  4. PRUDEN: Obama's due process doctrine
  5. Lobbyists spending big to shape health care debate
More Top Stories »
  1. Schumer: Dems will pass health bill alone
  2. EDITORIAL: Terrorists use Democratic talking points
  3. WH: Obama Afghan decision 'within days'
  4. EDITORIAL: Schumer's change of heart
  5. Green energy stimulus growing few jobs

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan

Blogs & Columns

  • Hot Button Blog

    RNC: Breast cancer recommendations may lead to 'rationing'

  • Belief Blog

    Evangelicals OK civil disobedience

  • Out of Context

    Foods that might kill libido

  • On the Fly

    United lifts some 'award' blocking

  • Technology

    Facebook wins round against phishing spammer

  • Redskins 360

    Gray spends day in Memphis

  • SNOBlog

    Beyond 'Woody'

Videos

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.