Is It Hotter?

Climate Change is all over the news right now. It seems that Global Warming is already here. And we're all going to die! Sorry, that was a bit over the top.

I want you to know that I am not a Global Warming denier. I think it is quite possible that the planet is warming. What I am skeptical about is why it might be warming. I am also skeptical that we can have much, if any, of an impact on it; that we can slow it down or ever reverse it. And about why we should endeavor to reduce it.

The planet has warmed many times over the billions of years it has existed. It has also cooled many times We have cycled through warm periods and ice ages many times; few of which occurred during human habitation.

At one time, Wyoming had a hot sub-tropical climate, for example. It has been proposed that climate change influenced human migration. It seems logical that humans, starting out as hunter-gatherers, would follow game as it migrated so I find it also logical that shifts in climate would change migration patterns of humans.

I came across this while researching this post:

By the end of the last Ice Age, pretty much all the world's Mammoths had succumbed to climate change and human predation.
Woolly Mammoth facts

Early humans relied on the Woolly Mammoth for protein and for raw materials for tools and weapons. But they died out. Did humans follow them into extinction? No, of course they didn't. They adapted. They changed their source of protein, they began something called animal husbandry, they began farming. Humans learned we could adapt to changing circumstances, to changes in our environment. We also learned that we could alter our environment. We began building canals to bring water to arid areas, we eschewed caves for structures we could build.

We didn't seek ways to keep prey alive, we found a way to keep prey penned and under our control. We learned to build shelters which could be used and abandoned... or even moved (tents)... as needed.

So why are we trembling in fear of climate change? We are parasitic in nature and we will continue to exist. If seal levels rise, we will move back from the seas or build dikes (though I would counsel against the latter except as temporary measures), if storms get stronger we will build stronger structures. We already live in hurricane, tornado, and earthquake prone regions. We accept those risks and learn to live with them.

Why not learn to live with this new round of climate change?