Global Warming, really?

In the late 1980’s mankind realised that its ‘intelligence’ might as well result in its extinction with the discovery of ozone hole and an all new phenomenon called Global Warming. Shakespeare wrote in Henry VIII: “Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.” By the way, didn’t he also write in Hamlet: “The air bites shrewdly, ‘Tis very cold”.

The weather reports from last few years and the recent controversies regarding IPCC(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)’s claims have sparked very important debate – the debate of our survival. Is it the heat we should fear or the cold? Is Global Warming real or just a political agenda and one of their means to earn a few more bucks?

Let’s start from the beginning: sometime in 1970s, a man named James Hansen tried to catch the world’s imagination with the idea of Global Cooling. No one showed him much interest until he came with a new theory – Global Warming. Of course, the idea was not entirely new. There were many theories about it like the Green House effect in 1950’s but the original idea belonged to Svante August Arrhenius (yes, the same guy who gave us the famous Arrhenius equation), who in 1896 wrote on how the excessive carbon emission could result in an overall global rise in temperature (ring any bells? Yes, that precisely is the correct definition of Global warming). Our man, Mr. Hansen, just gave it a pretty name with red alert all around it. What triggered this sudden U-turn – miscalculation or external pressure – no one knows but he sure got the world’s attention. Why? Mortal peril. It’s a basic human instinct: No sooner is a man in danger than he loses his most important weapon – his rationale. Soon experiments were done both in his defence and against him. But it seems the world was not ready to do away with his thinking and ‘evidence’ was piled miles high in his support. The ozone hole only strengthened the view that we are indeed killing ourselves and other species. Before long there were protest marches, treaties, laws and new NGO’s multiplied like rodents. In short, nature finally got its guardians.

The public followed suit the way the crowd at capitol accepted every word that Brutus spoke because of the way they were delivered and because of the man who delivered it, our case is not any different except for the fact that our Antony never arrived.

The fact is, actually, quite different from what is being said. Ice on Antarctica doesn’t seem to be melting. On the contrary, it is growing very fast, which is quite evident. It can mean that there is no Global Warming. But pro-Global Warming scientists like to explain it quite differently – due to the ozone hole large amount of high energy radiation finds its way into Antarctica’s atmosphere which has sort of reversed the wind pattern, which now seems to be blowing toward Antarctica forming a perennial cloud over the continent. The cloud blocks the sun and most of the radiation (which ionizes it and gives it an unreal ghostly glow about it) and thus blocking the heat source. Moreover, the zephyr that blows towards it is one of the coldest air currents that blow across the planet. Hence, we have a much cooler Antarctica.

Now, let’s go to the Northern Hemisphere where better part of the human civilization resides. Here, the situation is not much different – Temperature is falling not rising. In year 2007, northern hemisphere saw greatest snow cover since 1966; it was termed ‘winter from hell’. As if that was not enough, winter of 2009 beat it. It was still colder. Braemar, Scotland saw temperature of -27.2˚C (16.6F). One of the men who experienced this winter from hell told a news channel, “If Global Warming gets any worse, we’ll freeze to death.” Very apt indeed.

Even history points to it. Evidence from all over the world shows that earth was hotter 1000 years ago. Research showed that even medieval times had higher temperature. Anthropologists (people who study evolution of human) even claim that the characteristic feature of our physical appearance (just the way we carry ourselves) that differentiates us from other mammals – our standing straight and walking on two legs is probably because of the warm climate. They say that early man probably stood up in order to become ‘cool’.

And if records are to be believed, hottest decade was not 1990’s but 1930’s.Now, to the most controversial part of the subject – The HIMALAYAS. Let’s face it – the Himalayan glaciers are not melting as fast as it is being said they are. The glaciers that are melting are doing so probably because of ‘local warming’. IPCC’s admission, that their claim that the Himalayas would melt by 2035 was wrong, only confirms this. Daily mail reported that Dr. Lal of IPCC admitted their claim of 2035 melting of Himalayas was under pressure from world leaders. So much for the end of the world. Needless to say that it is one of the most ingenious deceptions of recent times. If that’s not enough – Dr. Hayley Fowler of Newcastle University admitted that their draft of a paper in the influential journal Nature did not include Himalayan Glaciers in Karakoram Range, which are rapidly growing. Why? No prize for guessing. Its not just about Karakoram Range. Hundreds of glaciers across the globe are expanding at astonishing rate. Few of them are:-

CANADA – Helm glacier, Place glacier

FRANCE – Mt. Blanc glacier

ITALY – Winter sow is not melting on Presena glacier

SWITZERLAND – Silvretta glacier

RUSSIA – Maali glacier

NORWAY – Ålfotbreen Glacier, Briksdalsbreen Glacier, Nigardsbreen Glacier, Hardangerjøkulen Glacier, Hansebreen Glacier, Jostefonn Glacier

CHILE – Pia XI, largest in South America grows 2 meters every day.

US – Washington (Mt. St. Helen, Mt. Shuksan), California (Mt. Shusta), Alaska (Mt. McKinley)

Phew! That is some list! And the fact that its just the trailer of a very long movie is bone chilling.

So now we can say that it just might be one of the greatest deceptions in the history of mankind. But why would someone do that? Surely someone must be utterly jobless to cook up things like that; well, NO! if it is a deception, then it is one of the finest ones ever! Why would I say that? That’s because of the millions of jobs it has created (from clerks at NGO’s to the high profile scientists researching on it) and the amount of money it has raised for the global economy (so buying a ‘heat is on’ T-shirt is still a good idea).So I’d say it has just opened up an entire new arena to exploit economically and provided the job hungry world with something to do. But, like any business, if it has created a lot of money, it has also seen to it that billions go down the drain courtesy the large unproductive conferences of world leaders, useless protest marches against ministers’ decisions etc. United States government alone has spent $79 billion since 1989 on climate change research and technology (not counting the recent $2 billion stimulus for ‘green collar’ jobs). As for the world as a whole, total $128 billion was spent in 2008 alone. And of course, the valuable time it has consumed off the schedules of our leaders, who should be making more progress in providing millions of children with education, 1.25 lakh unelectified villages with electricity and 2 million homeless with homes (well, those are just the figure in India. Imagine the condition worldwide) instead they went to conferences, argued with other world leaders and came back to introduce a new emission standard.

Now let us go to a higher vantage point to get a clear view of this mess. A little higher still…yes, here we are!

Well, well, from here it doesn’t look all that bad, does it? Look at the cleaner air that has come as a reply to it from our governments. Look at the lives of the trees it has helped to save. And most of all it has brought man back to his feet. It has made man realise that man cannot ravage nature whenever he wants. Nature is a ship with no life boats. So, he better behave or the captain and the crew go down with the ship! Yes, he’ll be responsible for the extinction of countless other species as well ,for which he has no bloody right!

Got a little worked up there, didn’t I? As a matter of fact, in case of survival, we all do. However, the point is I haven’t proved whether Global Warming is real, fake, good, bad, anything! I have just stated some facts and made some statements. That is because I don’t know – we don’t know! Actually we can never know. We are too small and insignificant part of this universe to understand it. We are not even worth micro seconds in nature’s clock. It changes every now and then with respect to its clock. Climate change can’t be measured with data from a few decades. It takes thousands of years. Like I said Middle Ages were hotter or for example – deserts were part of seas or like all land mass was once a huge land mass. Maybe we are just going through another change, if ever there is a change.

So where does all this put my stand? Well, I’d like to have no stand. I’d like to say – ‘hey Mr. Politician, drop that agenda and get on with hungry kids agenda’. And I’d like to see that kind of money being spent in providing education. But why did I leave Global Warming behind? That's because it is none of my business – and neither yours. It’s just nature at work, something we have no control over. Like Ghost of Jacob Marley said in Christmas Carol – ‘Mankind was my business!’

It still does not give us the truth. Maybe it is not supposed to be found out. Our species is too short lived to worry about something like that. Maybe we should just carry on with what we should do and what we do best and let the nature take care of itself. ( that does not mean increasing pollution, that’s a real killer for sure). No one says it better than Shakespeare in Cymbeline –

‘Fear no more the heat o the sun, nor the furious winter’s rages. Thou thy worldly task hast done, home art gone taken by thy wages.’