I just read another of those fear mongering articles announcing that due to climate change the range of this animal or that plant is being squeezed so that it now faces extinction. Today's subject was the bumble bee which supposedly is losing the southern portion of its natural habitat due to temperature changes but which is not moving northward as that area warms. We are all supposed to be particularly fearful because these bees are very important to farmers and food production.
So let's consider not just the bumble bee story, but the general story about how climate change is causing mass extinctions of animal and plant species. Let's start with a simple question: how long have these endangered species been on Earth? This may sound like a silly question, but it is perhaps the single most important question to answer when it comes to species that are supposedly endangered due to climate change. Keep in mind that two thousand years ago, the Earth's climate was significantly warmer than it is now. Indeed, if you check the data that has been assembled, you find that during the days of the Roman Empire, global temperatures were actually a few degrees warmer than they are now. In other words, two thousand years ago, Earth was warmer than even the higher temperatures that the global warming crowd predicts for a future disaster a century from now. Then remember that eleven to fifteen thousand years ago, Earth was in the middle of an ice age. In North America, glaciers covered almost all of Canada and much of the northern United States. Global temperatures were many degrees cooler than they are now. That brings us back to those pesky bumble bees. If their species was in existence over the last fifteen thousand years, then they have already survived temperatures both much colder and much warmer than what we have now and what we will see even if the global warming hysterics are correct in their predictions (which they are not.) Why should these bees die out now due to minor temperature changes when they survived much larger temperature changes in the past?
The problem here with the whole extinction of species argument is that only a tiny portion of the species now on Earth are new. Almost 100% lived through ice ages and warm periods that were far more extreme than anything predicted due to global warming. So the next time someone tells you about how this species or that species is being endangered, ask them to explain how that species survived the past warm and cool periods. Watch the stammering that follows. Be prepared, however, to be denounced as a "climate denier". The true believers don't like it when you show them the holes in their arguments.
So let's consider not just the bumble bee story, but the general story about how climate change is causing mass extinctions of animal and plant species. Let's start with a simple question: how long have these endangered species been on Earth? This may sound like a silly question, but it is perhaps the single most important question to answer when it comes to species that are supposedly endangered due to climate change. Keep in mind that two thousand years ago, the Earth's climate was significantly warmer than it is now. Indeed, if you check the data that has been assembled, you find that during the days of the Roman Empire, global temperatures were actually a few degrees warmer than they are now. In other words, two thousand years ago, Earth was warmer than even the higher temperatures that the global warming crowd predicts for a future disaster a century from now. Then remember that eleven to fifteen thousand years ago, Earth was in the middle of an ice age. In North America, glaciers covered almost all of Canada and much of the northern United States. Global temperatures were many degrees cooler than they are now. That brings us back to those pesky bumble bees. If their species was in existence over the last fifteen thousand years, then they have already survived temperatures both much colder and much warmer than what we have now and what we will see even if the global warming hysterics are correct in their predictions (which they are not.) Why should these bees die out now due to minor temperature changes when they survived much larger temperature changes in the past?
The problem here with the whole extinction of species argument is that only a tiny portion of the species now on Earth are new. Almost 100% lived through ice ages and warm periods that were far more extreme than anything predicted due to global warming. So the next time someone tells you about how this species or that species is being endangered, ask them to explain how that species survived the past warm and cool periods. Watch the stammering that follows. Be prepared, however, to be denounced as a "climate denier". The true believers don't like it when you show them the holes in their arguments.
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