Global Cooling Can Be Deadly
Global cooling, deadly? Imagine for a moment that some natural disaster strikes Earth and you lose 99% of your clients, most of your suppliers, and virtually all of your business infrastructure. This isn’t from a comet striking our world. It’s not from our sun going supernova (because it’s not massive enough to do that), or suddenly going out (stars don’t do that sort of thing). And it’s not something as exotic as an alien invasion. No, the disaster that could strike your business and every other business on this planet is not rare or impossible. In fact, it may already have started. This looming danger might be called “the Long Winter”—the kind that lasts for thousands of years.
In order to understand why this is so, we have to understand a few things about climate in a larger perspective. That’s the nice thing about learning history.
First of all, we live in an ongoing Ice Age interglacial. Maybe you’ve heard of it. This current climate period is called the Holocene interglacial or Holocene Epoch. And there’s our clue: “interglacial.” An interglacial is one of two key states in an Ice Age. The other is a glacial period. Don’t misunderstand this. Both types of periods have glaciation at the poles; this is, after all, what defines an Ice Age—year-round ice at the poles. Glacial periods merely have far more of the cold stuff.
Second of all, global warming made civilization possible. Hint: before the massive global warming 12,000 years ago, civilization was largely impossible. Why this is so remains key to understanding how dangerous is the American government’s and United Nations’ plan for forcing our world to become cooler. CIA Director John Brennan had nothing but glowing words about this insane plan at a CFR meeting June 2016. The cover story is that they need to stop dangerous global warming. The truth is far more sinister.
Minor Global Cooling Proved Murderous
In 1816, our world had a year without a summer. That’s right—this current year is the 200th anniversary. Average global temperature dropped nearly –1 °C that year, resulting in thousands of deaths and thousands of climate refugees. That was a minor wave of global cooling. That was caused by volcanic debris clouding the skies—very similar to the technique planned by our governments.
Before 1816, our entire planet had suffered 500 years of global cooling called the Little Ice Age. That period made it very difficult for farmers worldwide. The cold made it more difficult for people to achieve prosperity, too. The Little Ice Age may have been one contributing factor to the rush for colonization from Europe to the Americas, Africa and the Far East. But the Little Ice Age also saw more violent and frequent storms—like the Great Storm of 1703 which slammed into England, or the monster storm of 1588 which sank the Spanish Armada off the English coast. But again, this was relatively minor as global cooling goes.
Major Global Cooling Behind Us
Before our current interglacial, we had something like 90,000 years of global cooling. That gave us 90,000 years without summer. Many call it the most recent Ice Age, but that’s a misnomer. It was the most recent glacial period of the current Ice Age. And our current Ice Age started 2.6 million years ago.
We don’t have any official weather reports from the last glacial period. Writing had not yet been invented in our current block of history. But we know that temperature differences are what cause wind to blow. And when you move polar cold closer to equatorial heat—as happens during an Ice Age glacial period—there is far more energy available for the creation and powering of civilization-crushing storms.
Perhaps the most deadly aspect of such a long period of global cooling is the far cooler oceans. Why is this a problem? Think about it for a moment. How much evaporation is there from ice water? If you were to keep an open pot of water chilled with refrigeration, it would last far longer than an open pot of room temperature water.
Without sufficient evaporation, clouds become more rare. And rain becomes extremely scarce. Deserts become the norm. Droughts occur more frequently. Without rain, agriculture doesn’t happen. What about irrigation? You can’t have irrigated farmland without rivers or lakes which are fed by rain. And without food, people die.
Major Global Cooling Ahead
No one knows when the Holocene will end, but it looks as though it may already have started. The graph, here, shows the average temperature per century. Notice the ten warm periods of the Holocene Epoch. With the exception of one exceedingly warm period about 4000 BC, we have had a strong warm period once every thousand years or so. Notice how the last 3 warm periods show a strong downtrend. Notice also how the cold periods between each has been deepening in their amount of cooling. Though this graph only represents the climate at Greenland over the last 10,000 years, graphs from other locations, like Antarctica, show similar patterns.
According to a paper by W.S. Broecker (1998), the average interglacial is about 11,000 years long. The range of the most recent several interglacials has been from 4,000 to 28,000 years. Our own Holocene is already 11,500 years (or 17,000, if you include the massive warming before the setback of the Younger Dryas). The major cooling around 6300 BC may have been similar to the Younger Dryas (YD), but more short-lived—300 years compared to 1,300 years. The YD was thought to have been caused by a major spill of cold, fresh water into the Atlantic.
We could get lucky and pull out of the current global cooling downtrend. We could see the Holocene setting a new record for interglacial duration. This interglacial could last another 16,500 years. That’s possible. But should we simply shrug our shoulders and turn away from the possibility that the next glacial may already be starting?
People lose sight of the fact that we live in an Ice Age because the tropics still exist. They see record heat waves in isolated places and are blinded by the anecdotal evidence. They don’t see the big picture. The current Ice Age doesn’t mean every location is covered with ice. It only means that the poles contain permanent ice. That’s both poles. Antarctica got a head start about 30 million years ago. Before then, it had forests.
When there’s warmth and water, life finds a way. Cold kills; warmth promotes life.
Global Cooling Could Destroy Your Business
This is not a pleasant thought. And this article would be pretty shallow if it didn’t have something positive to say about it all.
We can prepare for the coming ice. This doesn’t mean that we have to move right away or give up our lifestyle. But ask yourself: What could I do right now that doesn’t cost very much that could help ensure the survival of my family and my business should permanent glaciation hit our world on the short timetable of 50 years? I hope you’ll share some of your ideas so others will benefit from them.
If you live near the sea coast, invest in desalination equipment that really works and which doesn’t need expensive maintenance. Look into gardening. Turn your yard into food production. Consider investing in property in the tropics.
Also, consider the possibility that humanity could pool its resources and end the current Ice Age, eliminating the dangers of ice. Regrettably, that would mean sea levels would rise. This might require losing your beachfront property in the tropics, but it could end up saving billions of lives. Some tradeoff, huh?
Global Cooling is the Real Villain, Not Global Warming
So many lies have been said about global warming. The Warming Alarmists claim that Global Warming will cause more violent and numerous storms. The opposite is true. Anyone who knows that wind is caused by temperature differences can figure this one out. The Warming Alarmists claim that Global Warming will result in more deserts and droughts. Again, the opposite is true. Anyone who has ever seen a tea pot when the water is boiling knows that it takes heat to evaporate water. And you don’t get any rain unless there is evaporation.
Any change will create problems. That’s life. But a –2 °C drop in global average temperature is far more dangerous than a +10 °C rise. During a glacial period, we could see global average temperatures –10 to –12 °C cooler than they are now. The last time that happened, human population could never get about a few tens of thousands.
Some Warming Alarmists fear that enough Global Warming to make the poles comfortable would scorch lower latitudes. That’s not how it works. Even Al Gore, with all his half-truths, got this one right in his film. The tropics barely change; deserts shrink, and the temperate zone becomes much larger, overtaking the polar regions.
If global warming could make civilization possible, could global cooling make civilization impossible?
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This article was originally published 2016:0803 on GlobalWarmth.org.