On 01/01/2008, at 8:01 PM, Ray Lawley-Sinclair wrote: > > Unfortunately, the current rate of warming is approximately double > any rate recorded subsequent to any previous ice age. I refer to > three articles showing the effects of natural climate changes in the > past, the current climate change situation, and predictions for the > future:
A suggestion recently heard from a source who would die of embarrassment if I used his name here, and who will therefore remain anonymous unless he chooses to reveal himself, is that the atmosphere has been in a natural warming influence since the 14th century, but that it was interrupted by the industrial revolution belching soot into the air and thereby reducing the amount of solar radiation hitting the ground. Since the 1970's environmentalists have been campaigning for clean air, and have been successful in reducing particulate emissions from most western industrial processes, leading to us in the 21st century experiencing the cleanest air the Northern hemisphere has known since the 1700's. That's allowed the quantity of solar radiation reaching the ground to increase to the level it would have been at if the industrial revolution had never occurred in the first place, making temperatures shoot up to join onto the curve they would have been following since the 14th century if mankind hadn't been meddling. It's an intriguing theory. I like it because it actually pins global warming on the green movement, which is delicious in its irony :-) It also neatly explains Mann's hockey stick graph, and also explains why warming has been more pronounced in the Northern hemisphere than the Southern (the Southern hemisphere never had that much industry in the first place, and has always had cleaner air than Europe and North America) and avoids buying into the IPCC's missing 30km-high warming that Mike Borgelt was banging on about a few weeks ago. Is it right? No idea. But it's good for a stir, so that probably makes it on topic for this list :-) - mark -------------------------------------------------------------------- I tried an internal modem, [EMAIL PROTECTED] but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton ----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 ----- _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring