Patrick J. Barosh — Providence Journal — July 1, 2014
‘Climate change is a socialist plot.” “We’re experiencing our warmest weather ever.” “Lower Manhattan will be flooded by rising seas by 2050.” These and other extreme statements are being tossed about, while science suffers.
The fact is, climate and sea level are always changing. This is a fundamental tenet of the science of geology. The national recognition of climate change in the last dozen years is akin to discovering that the sun rises in the east; proposals to stop it amount to requiring the sun to rise in the west.
We live on a very lively planet with an ever-changing climate. This is related to various solar cycles and flares, polar wandering, continental plate movement, seas opening and closing, mountains rising and eroding away, volcanic eruptions and additional factors.
A particularly wild roller-coaster ride of climatic fluctuations started 1.8 million years ago during what is commonly called the Ice Age. A remarkable record of sea level change from the last group of glaciations to the present is well preserved in the Boston region and shows the level varying between minus 200 feet to plus 25 feet.
The last glacial ice started receding northward from just offshore of Rhode Island 18,000 years ago, when the coastline was about 90 miles south of the present one.
Our climate has been warming and the sea rising since, but there have been many ups and downs. The last time it warmed up, reaching temperatures higher than today, was between 800 and 1300 AD. This did not bring on a natural catastrophe. Instead, an apparently calmer Atlantic aided the Vikings to launch coastal raids and establish farms on Greenland. Better grass in Asia helped the advance of Genghis Kahn’s cavalry. Grapes grew farther north in New England.
That warming did, however, cause a severe drought in our Southwest that resulted in the abandonment of many pueblos. This was balanced by increased farming in the Mississippi Valley and the rise of Indian cities. No mention is made of the great inundations of coastal European towns. The climate again turned cold, and we are now coming out of the “Little Ice Age” of 19th century Europe, but we have yet to reach the high temperatures of many past warm times. Continue reading here….