Source: LewRockwell.com
In my writings for LewRockwell.com I first focused on climate change in “Finding Truth in Phoenix,” in 2003 after attending the 21st Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness held in Phoenix, Arizona that year.
Willie Soon, PhD, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, gave the first talk, on climate change. He refuted claims that the 1990s was the warmest decade of the millennium and that the 20th century was warmer than any other century.
Robert Balling, PhD, Director of the Office of Climatology at Arizona State University showed that the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere, measured by balloon and satellite thermometers had not changed in the previous 25 years, even though CO2 levels were rising. And Sherwood Idso, PhD,
President of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change found that a 300 ppm (parts per million) boost in concentration of CO2 increases the productivity of plants by 30 to 50 percent. Orange trees produce twice as many oranges, each with 20 percent greater vitamin C when the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere doubles, from 300 to 600 ppm. (Atmospheric carbon dioxide was 370 ppm in 2003 and is 421 ppm now.)
Earth History
Planet Earth was formed from a galactic cloud of gas, dust, and rocky particles 4,567 million years ago. It coalesced into a volcanic greenhouse planet free of any ice on it 80% of the time. Volcanos spewed carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in concentrations more than 100 times greater than now.
Bacteria, single-cell organisms 1-2 micrometers in size, arose 3,600 million years ago. Then eukaryotes, cells with a nucleus, evolved 2,300 million years ago, followed by multicellular animals less than 1 millimeter in size. Land plants first appeared on Earth 470 million years ago, followed by a thousand species of dinosaurs living 250 to 66 million years ago (when atmospheric CO2 levels reached 2,000 ppm).
There have been six major ice ages in the Earth’s history. Two of them, 2,500 and 700 million years ago produced a “snowball” Earth, with glacial ice sheets reaching the equator.
During one warm period 50 million years ago the weather in the Arctic was like that in Florida today. The Artic Ocean remained free of ice year-round and was populated by alligators and turtles.
The current (Late Cenozoic) Ice Age began 34 million years ago. Its most recent glaciation phase began 127,000 years ago and ended 14,700 years ago. We live in an interglacial warm phase of this Ice Age.
In this interglacial period, there was a natural Medieval Warming from 900-1300 AD, and a Little Ice Age (1300-1850). New York harbor froze in 1780, and people could walk from Manhattan across the ice to Staten Island a mile away. A Modern Warming followed, which also occurred on Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, and Triton, Neptune’s largest moon….