The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> COLD MINDS br> Re: Tom Bethell's The False Alert of Global Warming : /p>

As a former weather forecaster for the Air Force, and an avid reader of European History I have known for years of the late medieval warming period. For the last few decades some historians have even speculated that the Roman Empire fell not only because of foreign invasions, but also because of a rapid cooling across Europe. The shorter growing seasons meant less food. The great Roman cities could no longer support large populations. Over a period of time, Europe became agrarian, feudal, and barbaric -- hence the Dark Ages.

Of course, this is speculation; however, when a person considers what occurred between 1100 and 1400 -- a sharp spike in temperatures across Europe -- and the ensuing Renaissance, it doesn't appear so implausible. In the past I could at least discuss this phenomena with other people who were interested in climate change. Yet, within the last few years, my speculation has been treated as heresy. A person would think I was questioning the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. People now say there was no warm period a millennia ago, and if there was, it was minuscule. They have all used the hockey stick as their source. When I persist in questioning such a dubious single source, their reaction becomes heated: how could I, an amateur, question the professionals. End of Story. Debate Over. Go Home.

p>I think Stalin was on to something when he obliterated the biographies of public people he murdered. It wasn't enough for him to kill them; Stalin had their names removed from newspapers, history books, and journals. This same thing is occurring in the climate field. No longer is it polite to even bring up something that historians, anthropologists, and geologists all know. If 2+2=4 became a political issue we could expect a tenured math professor to publish a paper stating that the sum isn't 4, but 5. br> -- J.P. Koch /p>

After the enviros have scared the world about man-made carbon dioxide, man-made water is next. There are two products of any combustion reaction -- water and carbon dioxide. When all the scares about CO2 have subsided, someone will find that the extra water dumped into the atmosphere by combustion is doing something bad to the earth.

p>-- Steve Black

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