[ RadSafe ] Teller and climate chage

[KARAM, PHILIP]

For most of the Earth's history there have been no ice caps at the poles and few or no glaciers. The current climate is unusually cold - one of a handful of ice ages in the history of the planet. At present the world is emerging from the last glacial advance - the glaciers began melting several thousand years ago. Interestingly, maps of Glacier Bay show that glaciers there began to melt about 200 years ago - well before the accumulation of anthropogenic greenhouse gases.

One other point is that there have been times in the Earth's history when CO2 levels were substantially higher than today - these periods were associated with tremendous booms in both land and marine life. I don't deny that ocean acidification can be bad for our current suite of organisms - but throughout the history of the Earth the planet and the life it carries has done quite well under conditions of what we consider to be global warming and astronomically high CO2 levels.

The bottom line is that at this point in geologic history we'd expect to see warming temperatures, melting glaciers and ice caps, and rising sea levels - the question is not whether or not this is happening, but, rather, if human contributions are affecting the magnitude and the rate at which these changes are taking place. Is it hubris to think that we can affect the global climate, or is it denial to think otherwise?

Andrew Karam, PhD, CHP


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Johansen, Kjell
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 8:41 AM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Teller and climate chage

Howard Long wrote

"Common sense is also enough, when you recall that when Greenland was green
around 1,000 AD"

As a Norwegian who knows something about Viking history, I admit that Greenland or Grønland was a bit greener back in 1000.  However, the use of the name "Greenland" was a Viking marketing ploy to get people to move there.  Not so much a statement as to the overall environment. They were trying to get people to move from Iceland.  Greenland sounded better.

Kjell Johansen
kjell.johansen at NextERAEnergy.com

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