Scientists found traces of pine, beetles, and butterflies at the bottom of a glacier in Greenland, suggesting that the climate of the arctic wasteland was significantly more temperate a half million years ago. Climate, independent of man-made pollution, changes. Just don't tell that to one of the global-warming cultists, who would sooner accept the idea that pollution from the Vikings' motor boats caused Greenland to freeze over.

This has to be the most laughable posts yet on global warming. You've really outdone yourself this time Danny Boy.

Everyone knows that Greenland used to be a tropical paradise. When I was in first grade in Alaska we were all taught about how Alaska used to be warm, tropical, and filled with dinosaurs. This ancient climate is the reason, after all, that there is so much oil on the north slope. Only warm environments can support the organic matter needed to form such hydrocarbons.

Several reasons why this doesn't matter in the context of the global warming debate.

One, these landmasses were at different latitudes millions of years ago, so comparing climatic conditions between then and now is more than a little problematic.

Two, and more importantly, modern humans only finished evolving in their present form around 100,000 years ago. We are suited to the climate that existed then, not the climate that existed 400,000 years or millions of years before. I'm assuming you're thinking that any climate that has existed sometime in the past is "natural" and therefore equally desirable to the one that exists now. This is far from the truth. Our bodies and our civilization are tuned to the specific climate that existed when we evolved. Any deviation from that is dangerous.

Third, I assume that your implication is that because these ancient Greenland changes were natural, the global changes we're seeing now must be natural too. This is, again, sadly mistaken. Its true that the Earth cycles naturally between warm and cold, but the current warming trend we're seeing now is occurring much faster than any natural cycle we've seen before. Its the speed of these changes more than anything that is worrisome. Nature (and our civilization) won't have much time to adapt to the new climatic conditions. Natural systems have a hard time dealing with sudden, dramatic change and that is exactly what we're seeing with Climate Change today and what we didn't see with the gradual warming/cooling cycles millions of years ago.

Again, you seem to be a religious person and I think that's where this contrived idea you have of science comes from. In order to accept the fact that human evolution gave our bodies a certain climatic range, you have to accept that God is not the creator. That's too much for some people. Its easier to deny the truth. Ignorance is bliss....

Its a sad state of existence.

Science is Truth,

Science Magazine disagrees with you:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/07/science_magazine_waffles_on_wa.html

Has Science magazine as well joined the conservative anti-science cult?

There is no debate S.I.T. That’s because there is no definitive science that proves Global Warming theories to be true.

What is known to be true is the cyclical nature of the Earth's warming and cooling over eons of time.

To think that humans are somehow responsible for the any of Earth’s changes is self centered and ignorant.

Makes for good box office though and works very nicely into the leftist doom and gloom mantra that humans are inherently bad.

Global warming is a scam! Good post Dan!

"Science is truth." Did you read that on a bumper-sticker?

According to the discovery channel, aliens built the Pyramids, (I can only assume this was done out of some particular affinity for Egyptian culture) using their advanced technology to lift heavy blocks in a way that no human could ever engineer.

Along those same lines, I think it only fair to assign at least SOME blame for our 'climate crisis' to whatever by-product is produced from the alien spaceships that continue to visit California and America's heartland on a regular basis.

Note also in the linked article that they discussed the climate change in Greenland 1000 years ago. This, to me, is far more interesting. At one time, the Catholic Church included the Greenland settlement in a diocese. There are records of these people, but when ships went back the settlement was completely gone. What happened? No one knows exactly, but probably climate change.

I don't know. Maybe we should be listening to the Reverend Ally G. and take this Global Warming business more seriously. After all, it does get hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Seems like a planetary emergency to me. Now, if we could only find some way to keep the Earth from spinning and moving on its axis, we could solve this problem.

Hey, SiT,

From this statement, "the current warming trend we're seeing now is occurring much faster than any natural cycle we've seen before," I'm guessing that somewhere there's a a Scientific standard that the maximum rate of a natural change cannot be happening right now.

I have to admit that if Dan tried to imply that if Dan implied what you think he did, then it was overreaching. But I didn't read it as proof-y as you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6290228.stm

Global Warming is actually caused by alien invaders from the plant Glckslpk who are trying to incite a global riot. Also, Elvis is in cohoots with them.

Seriously, if these Eco-Doom-and-Gloomers were correct the entire planet would have become a desert decades ago!

I've got to say that I was very surprised recently when, out of the blue, two people who I consider relatively intelligent business people stated that they thought Al Gore should get the NPP for his untiring efforts to raise awareness of Global Warming and help "save the planet".

This prompted me to respond and a discussion insued.

As is typical, when pushed to think beyond what information the mainstream media had fed them, they were boggled by facts and logical thought on the subject.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran into a couple of friends who had just gotten back from Venice. The woman was upset to tell me how Global Warming was cause for flooding the streets of that fantastic city.

I had to let it pass because it just sounded so absurd as presented.

A lot of sheep out there.