Oh, For Pity's Sake: Now Climatologists Say Humans Caused Global Warming 5-8,000 Years Ago; Agriculture and Deforestation By Minute Human Populations Warmed the Earth to Forestall New Ice Age

As Johnny Mac would say: You have got to be kidding me.

"Between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago, both methane and carbon dioxide started an upward trend, unlike during previous interglacial periods," explains Kutzbach. Indeed, Ruddiman has shown that during the latter stages of six previous interglacials, greenhouse gases trended downward, not upward. Thus, the accumulation of greenhouse gases over the past few thousands of years, the Wisconsin-Virginia team argue, is very likely forestalling the onset of a new glacial cycle, such as have occurred at regular 100,000-year intervals during the last million years. Each glacial period has been paced by regular and predictable changes in the orbit of the Earth known as Milankovitch cycles, a mechanism thought to kick start glacial cycles.

"We're at a very favorable state right now for increased glaciation," says Kutzbach. "Nature is favoring it at this time in orbital cycles, and if humans weren't in the picture it would probably be happening today."

Sound silly? But they have computer models. You know, like the Sims.

Using three different climate models and removing the amount of greenhouse gases humans have injected into the atmosphere during the past 5,000 to 8,000 years, Vavrus and Kutzbach observed more permanent snow and ice cover in regions of Canada, Siberia, Greenland and the Rocky Mountains, all known to be seed regions for glaciers from previous ice ages. Vavrus notes: "With every feedback we've included, it seems to support the hypothesis (of a forestalled ice age) even more. We keep getting the same answer."

What was the entire human population 5-8,000 years ago in the stone age? When agriculture was just beginning? What? 100 million, tops? (I'm guessing a fraction of that, like 30 million, but I confess I don't know.)

If a stone age, non-industrial, non-petroleum burning population of several dozen millions could have so radically altered the earths' climate so as to forestall an ice age, then there is no point making any efforts whatsoever to mitigate "climate change" now that we number in the billions.

The earth is a fragile little bitch, it turns out, and there's really no use trying to molly-coddle it. We might as well just get used to the earth throwing periodic hissy-fits and get on with business as usual.

No one likes a whiner. Butch up, Planetwad. Life isn't all rainbows and unicorns, no matter what Obama tells you.

That's just the way we humans roll.

Thanks to Instapundit.

I Guessed Too High: Actually, I suspected it was lower, but I didn't want to go too low. Anyway, DrewM checked the numbers:

A quick scan of google returns show the population was anywhere between 5 and 15 million over that 3,000 year period.

You know, less than NYC is today and yet it changed the world's climate. Yeah, I'm gonna pass on that level of eco-communist shit.

Between 5 and 15 million people so changed the earth as to forestall an ice age.

Computer models prove it.

Obama's Science Advisor to the Rescue! Obama's head scientist wants to eliminate all population growth (China-style? How does one accomplish this?). He's still citing Paul Erlich's book from the seventies, The Population Bomb, predicting mass starvation on earth as our population oustripped our food supplies.

I got news for this cat -- stopping population growth isn't nearly enough. Apparently we have to kill all but a fraction of humanity to get us below the 5 million global population tipping point.

Before we destroyed the world.

Erlich, by the way, was also predicting a new ice age based on 40s through 70s global cooling. This was, of course, just a scant 5-10 years before he began predicting global warming, and became in fact one of global warming's most prominent adherents.

posted by Ace at 02:22 PM

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