With many countries experiencing heat waves this summer the media is fixated on global warming with an oft heard comment about this being a perfect example of how global warming is affecting us.
I don't pretend to be an expert on global warming but I have read on many occasions that weather is not climate and it is wholly inappropriate to equate specific weather events as proof of climate theories. Another refrain I hear is that our more volatile weather is a symptom of global warming however I understand that the reverse is considered true - global warming should lead to milder weather.
The scientific evidence just doesn't seem to support wild claims about the human impact upon global climate change so it is difficult to get worked up about about the topic which seems to now be firmly in the grasp of emotion driven by politics and pseudo-religion. This has led to fear mongering, blame and silly proposals that will in all likelihood do more harm than good. The facts suggest that humanity survives on a razor's edge - the average global temperature for this planet (let's say over the last billion years - or even over so many million years) is far too warm to support us. (The natural state of this planet is sans ice caps and glaciers.) And if our fate is to see an end to the current interglacial and return to the normal ice age temperature that the planet has grown accustomed to over 1.8 million years then humanity's fate is similarly bleak (but perhaps more survivable than the alternative).
Now I do indeed care about humanity, as clinical as these observations may sound, and the solution resides in humility and a state of peace. Our arrogance leads us to believe that we are in greater control of our destiny than we really are and being frantic and desperate will lead to really bad decisions. Understanding that we live in both a material and spiritual world helps us to be pragmatic yet hopeful, we can be both scientific and religious (and not the impostor religions that worship nature or are founded in emotion or superstition). Let's not bow down at the false idols of global warming (and perhaps even are we to perish by global warming we still say that we won't bow down).
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