The Benefits of Global Warming: Where is Global Warming When You Need It?
Posted: Sunday, February 01, 2009
by Mogama
http://www.mogama.info
That the climate of the earth is changing few would argue. But that such a change is on the warm side, and that the change is man-made, that's where the lines of arguments are drawn. In lieu of current ice storms in certain parts of the United States, it behooves those who have made a career out of Global Warming to adopt a 'language change' from 'global warming' to 'climate change'. Interestingly, crudely rebuked by Mother Nature herself, some global warming fanatics are already changing their lingo.
To that, one like Al Gore could just say, "Did I say 'global warming'? I meant 'global warning'. Yeah, in the face of climate change, we need a warning, even if the earth may not be warming."
For those who insist that the earth is warming and is about to become a ball of fire, a Bible student like myself may take pleasure in pointing out that a warmer earth is no new prediction. In fact, the Scriptures predict something much worse than a warming of earth's temperature: "...the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up", and "all these things will be dissolved" (2 Peter 3:10,11).
However, that catastrophic inferno is obviously not here yet. Therefore, some of us who are presently wielding from the chilling effects of a low-temperature record-setting winter delivered as an ice storm are annoyed enough to retort, "What global warming?"
A cold-nature friend of mine told me the other day, "We need both the cold and the heat to keep a balance."
O yeah? Well, that friend's prayer was more than answered when on Tuesday January 27, 2009, an ice storm blanketed the state of Kentucky, turning much of the Blue Grass into a federal disaster area. My friend was one of 1.3 million Kentuckians, that's over 700 homes and businesses, that lost electric power because of the ice storm, the likes of which have not been seen since 1902.
Obviously, my cold-nature friend has known nothing but Midwestern American climate all his life. He may not know it, but many parts of the globe do not experience what Westerners know as snow, ice storm or winter. In the 15 or so nations of West Africa, for example, it's "cold" when the temperature reads 60 degrees Fahrenheit. If this proves nothing, it at least proves that warm-weather earth as is typical of tropical climate can support life just fine. My warm bias prompts me to say, "Yes, the human race can survive a tropical earth just fine."
Simply based on common sense, consider some of the obvious benefits of a warmer climate:
- More parts of the earth can grow tropical crops like great tasting pine apples, sugar cane, mangoes, papaw, avocado (butter pair), oranges, grapefruits, cassava, coco yam, sweet potatoes, rice, just to name a few.
- We can do away with the need for heaters in our homes, and save bundles on heating bills.
- Russia loses its power and leverage to keep European families in the freezer during winter time, just because Russia has a political beef with Ukraine.
- All of America feels like Florida all year long, which means each state can keep more of its senior citizens and their wealth at home, and not lose them to retirement homes in Florida and other warmer states.
- Have I mentioned the savings on winter clothing, winterizing of vehicles, the cost of cleaning up ice storms and other forms of winter-related hassles, the cost of undoing the impact of cold weather on roads and bridges?
In his study, Dr. Moore finds that...
- "warmer climate would probably reduce mortality in the United States and provide Americans with valuable benefits."
- "warmer temperatures reduce deaths."
- "warming might reduce medical costs by about $20 billion annually."
- "people prefer warm climates. Workers today would be willing to give up between $30 billion and $100 billion annually in wages for a 2.5deg.C increase in temperatures."
- "many people upon retiring flee to southern and warmer locales. According to a survey of people turning 50 in 1996, almost 40 percent plan to move when they retire and the most important criterion in selecting their destination (40 percent) is a "more favorable climate" ( USA Today, May 13, 1996, p. B1)."
- "physicians sometimes recommend that patients escape to a warmer climate, never to a colder one. Presumably retirees, at least, find that higher temperatures improve their welfare."
- "Most Americans and Canadians taking vacations in the winter head to Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, or southern California. Exceptions crowd the ski slopes, but they are a minority."
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Global warming is about the increase in average temperature - in some places temperatures can become more variable rather than warmer...some places may even get colder, at least for a while. Localised ice-storms and other violent weather would become more common.Global warming wouldn't just mean the whole world became like the current tropical regions. Today's tropical regions are part of the global climate: the climate (rainfall, humidity etc) in hot regions is shaped by the climate in cold regions (and vice-versa). If the whole earth became as warm as the tropics, the tropics would be far less pleasant than they are today (and most of the islands and lowlands would be under water!)While I agree that there may be a large element of media hype and political spin going on with regard to global warming, if it does happen it would not lead to the better, more pleasant world your article suggests - many hot regions would become deserts, many tropical regions would become drier, the savings we'd get from our winter heating bills would be spent on summer cooling instead and today's low-land regions would be submerged. Not a pleasant prospect really, and far from a global tropical paradise!Whether or not mankind's actions have significantly impacted global temperature, it is a fact that earth's temperature changes naturally to extremes that would make it impossible to sustain today's societies and global population size - age ages as well as hotter times.If we are to preserve our civilizations into the far future, we will need to learn how to stabilise the temperature of our planet.Any significant change in temperature, whether it is an ice age or hotter age, will make it impossible to sustain the human population at its present (and growing) numbers.I appreciate your intelligent input, Ben, though you and I differ on this. Given that there is global warming, the belief that humans can do anything to change the global temperature of planet earth borders on fantasy. If we can't now do anything about a one-day weather forecast, how can we impact world-wide climate? I hope you understand why some of us have our doubts about this whole thing, which may be an agenda for some to impose their ideology about the environment on the rest of us. Thanks for commenting. ~mogama~"If we can't now do anything about a one-day weather forecast, how can we impact world-wide climate? "
Well, prediction is a subtle and difficult process.... a deliberate attempt to change world-wide climate would be more of a brute-force process, something we humans seem to have a natural flair for (our brute destructive power massively outweighs our ability to subtly repair damaged organs for example)
"I hope you understand why some of us have our doubts about this whole thing, which may be an agenda for some to impose their ideology about the environment on the rest of us"
I understand completely, and I have many doubts myself - I'm still somewhat on the fence with regard to the global warming issue, I've not seen clear evidence - in fact it seems very hard to find objective facts on the issue as everything seems to be politicized unfortunately.
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