simonshack wrote:For all I know (not much, admittedly) our earth's climate has always been fluctuating - and that we're just going through a warmer phase (in the Northern hemisphere, that is.
This can be considered generally correct but even this statement isn't necessarily 100% accurate considering the earth has seen slight cooling in the last 16 years. This is an unfortunate turn of events for the Al Gores and James Hansens of the fraud which is why they eventually had to change the terminology from Global Warming to Climate Change once the models began failing miserably. It all depends on the dataset used and where in time you start. For example, most alarmists use the modern satellite era data which began in 1979. 1979 also happens to be the year of peak ice and the coldest year since the 1920s, so it's a perfect starting point for people who want to show a warming trend. Of course, we have data that goes back further than that but they don't want to use any of that data because it doesn't fit their silly agenda.
Anyways, it appears that the Arctic is indeed currently getting warmer - while the Antarctic is getting colder - and this trend should, according to some, just reverse itself over time. Of course, a whole bunch of other natural factors would combine to influence periodical climate fluctuations on this planet. However, I personally have separate, and admittedly non-scientific reasons to believe that the Global Warming hysteria is yet another global sham peddled by NASA, ESA, the corrupt scientific community and the complicit MSM. I will, some other time, expound on my view on this issue, FWIW - but I'm certainly not alone in holding such beliefs.
You are certainly not alone, Simon. I've studied this issues extensively, it's a bit of my "bread and butter" so to speak and it is 100% a NASA, EPA, IPCC etc. scam, designed to redistribute more wealth (upwards) and scare people into believing the earth is in danger from a trace amount of life giving and creating gas (carbon dioxide). The entire theory of Global Warming is almost as ludicrous as the moon landings, a real giant leap of logic.
But in fact, the Arctic isn't necessarily getting warmer, it all just depends on how you're taking measurements and performing experiments. For example, temperatures in the Arctic are currently well below their normal average for this time of year and have been well below normal for weeks. Arctic ice area is approximately the highest we've seen in seven years (for this time of year). See here -
http://arctic-roos.org/observations/sat ... e_area.png
There is currently more ice in the Arctic today than there was on the same day in March of 1996. NASA won't say a word about that though. Meanwhile, Antarctica has seen record ice extent in the satellite era and had above average ice everyday in 2012. Temperatures in the Arctic are currently almost a hundred degrees below freezing and yet these people tell us the ice is melting. How does ice melt at -92 degrees F?
In the 1970s, there was a huge Global Cooling and Ice Age scare. I can post several dozens of examples of the fearmongering back then, but I'll just post this ONE gem from Time Magazine, circa June 24, 1974. (Note, I have to link to freep because apparently Time makes you pay for these articles now. They don't want people to see how stupid they were and still are).
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1663607/posts
Here's a nice summary of more Global Cooling hysteria from mainstream media sources over the last 100 years.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/global-war ... eeze/30336
And a few covers of Time magazine from the 70s.
Today these same people are bombarding us with Global Warming or Climate Change or Climate Disruption, they can't even keep their theories straight and have to adjust them everytime mother nature changes course. These people continue to predict an ice-free arctic every summer and everytime they have egg on their faces, they just move the goal posts. It's really silly. It should also be noted that NSDIC has been caught red handed over the last year adjusting data to cool the past by up to 1.5 degrees in some cases. Of course they don't bother accounting for UHI either and their selection of which thermometers to use is quite suspect. I can post more information about this if anyone is interested.
We have been subject to this fear campaign for well over a hundred years. Here's one of many examples (happy to post more if anyone is interested) from 1922, a newspaper article about the rapid melt and increased warmth in the Arctic.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mx ... %2C2365724
The ego and arrogance of these scientists to think that they a) know anything about climate and b) think that we can do anything about it is almost as ludicrous as saying we landed a rover on a distant planet 350 million miles away on the first try without even testing the lander. The idea that a tiny amount of carbon dioxide suddenly plays a larger role than the sun, the oceans, cloud systems, volcanos, earth's orbital patterns, cosmic rays, local weather patterns, etc is an insult to anyone with any sort of intelligence and a 7th grade science education.