Commentary by Ron Fink

Global warming was the topic of a recent Record editorial &#8220Serious about warming data.C It was an attempt to arouse public interest in a debate that is the focus of the far-left environmental movement. As with all subjects, there are other equally important opinions to be heard.

The editorial statement, &#8220Scientists predict that within 20 years, hundreds of millions of people worldwide won/t have enough water to survive. …C is an example of a highly emotional opinion designed to alarm readers. Many politicians react to statements like this with totally unnecessary and costly rules and regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency/s &#8220climate changeC Web page notes: &#8220The Earth/s climate has changed throughout history. From glacial (or &#8220ice agesC) where ice covered significant portions of the Earth to interglacial periods where ice retreated (melted) to the poles or melted entirely 7 the climate has continuously changed.C It will continue to change, that/s how it is with weather.

British filmmaker Martin Durkin recently produced &#8220The Great Global Warming Scandal.C In it, he notes: &#8220Scientists in the documentary also say most of the recent global warming occurred before 1940, followed by a 40-year temperature drop. They say the carbon dioxide created during the post-World War II economic boom should have caused a rise in global temperatures.C

This seems more than logical. If, as concerned scientists of today point out, human activities are causing global warming, then why didn/t the period that preceded the current global effort to reduce greenhouse gases create a temperature surge as &#8220bigC as the one being used to support today/s shrill rhetoric?

The Washington Post reported: &#8220The skeptics point to the global temperature graph for the past century. Notice how, after rising steadily in the early 20th century, in 1940 the temperature suddenly levels off. No 7 it goes down, for the next 35 years! If the planet is getting steadily warmer due to Industrial Age greenhouse gases, why did it get cooler when industries began belching out carbon dioxide at full tilt at the start of World War II? Now look at the ice in Antarctica: Getting thicker in places! Sea level rise, it/s actually dropping around certain islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans.C

This isn/t the first time that &#8220scientistsC and the press has raised the global temperature alarm. In the 1970s, there was increasing awareness that estimates of global temperatures had shown cooling since 1945. In fact, at the time, many renowned scientists were using global climate models to predict a new ice age!

Not long after the idea of global cooling reached the public press in the mid-1970s, the temperature trend stopped going down. Apparently, the media of the time had a dramatic impact on the environment, maybe all that hot air solved the problem to the extreme, and now we have &#8220global warming.C

Back to the EPA Web site: &#8220Changes in the shape of the Earth/s orbit, as well as the Earth/s tilt, affect the amount of sunlight received on the Earth/s surface and are thought to be the most significant drivers of ice ages.C And, &#8220Changes occurring within (or inside) the sun can affect the intensity of the sunlight that reaches the Earth/s surface. The intensity of the sunlight can cause either warming (for stronger solar intensity) or cooling (for weaker solar intensity).C

&#8220If we want to save the planet, we need to start nowC is the clarion cry of the Record editorial.

To be clear, the planet is in no immediate or long-range danger and really doesn/t need to be saved. Besides, if you put all of the available resources of the world to work, you couldn/t change the tilt of the Earth or the intensity of the Sun!

Ron Fink is a longtime Lompoc resident and a community activist.

March 27, 2007