Thread: Global Warming, A Good Thing?

When you here the scary stories about the impending doom to come upon the world by GLOBAL WARMING, take heart,the result may have positive effects in the world that might far out weigh the dooms day scenarios reported. This is an upbeat perspective worthy of consideration.
Before we get into the positive points there are facts about past episodes of global warming to ponder. In the days the Vikings were sailing the ocean blue, seeking out new lands, the world was in a period of global warming, Arctic and Antarctic ice was rapidly melting, glaciers were steadily retreating and the Vikings were enjoying life gardening and ranching the island of Greenland.
Another thing to take into account is the physics of ice and its liquid form, water. Ice because it is less dense than water it floats on water but when it melts, it once again becomes dense. Elementary, you say? Yes Elementary. You can put a chunk of ice into a bowl of water that floats above the water and when the ice melts and sinks into the water the level of the water will be unchanged. This is an important fact to remember because the one of the scare tactics of 'the global warming is bad', crowd is that the ocean level will increase so much that vast expanses of low elevation land will be under water due to the melting of the ice. While It could be agreed that the level of the water in the oceans will in fact change because of ice melting, it will not be because of any ice that melts that is floating in the water. Any ice that is on the surface of the land however will upon melting increase ocean levels. This brings up another phenomena that happens when global warming occurs with respect to water, more of it will be evaporated up into the atmosphere.
As the earth warms the water will of its nature become airborne to form clouds and humidity thus further subtracting it from the ocean level. Upon hearing this, the response I would expect from the 'global warming is bad', crowd is that that evaporation into the atmosphere would not amount to much in the way of substantially lowering the sea levels to a point that would keep low lands from flooding. Where upon one could debate that if the temperatures are warming to an unprecedented degree upon the face of the earth that now hence fourth the model has changed, and that change might accommodate a vastly greater amount of evaporation, humidity and cloud cover, and yes a chance of more rain.
Now lets consider if the rain begins to fall over more of the land mass of earth due to global warming and those areas of the world that were in past deserts or more generally arid start receiving a higher percentage of rain fall, well the ground will become more saturated, the water tables would rise, lakes and ponds would fill, inland seas would rise, new lakes would be created, aquifers would fill, trees and shrubs would drink the liquid up etc. thus further dropping the ocean levels that might flood low lying coastal lands.
I want to reiterate that global warming has occurred in the past to the advantage of humanity and nature and to remember that it is possible that some of those who underscore the fears of global warming do so for political and ideological reasons, some even treating the subject with religious piety. And a cogent question I have asked myself, even when I used to be one of the 'Global Warming Bad', compatriots is, what if we humans do all that we think we can to change the situation? Yet the globe continues to warm beyond our control because it is a natural cycle. Another nagging question is, What happens if we encounter GLOBAL COOLING? This could be disastrous and historically global cooling is followed by famine an intense suffering and finally death on a large scale. The current death culture would like this scenario. When we say global warming I think many times people are thinking on a apocalyptic scale as when the magnetic field breaks down and the solar flares and radiation of the sun rain down unimpeded upon the earth. This is not that scenario that is being expressed here. Now the up beat of a warming earth.
Economically if global warming caused more rain throughout the world and warmed northern and southern climates the growing of vegetables, cotton, fruit and nut trees, grazing crops and grazing lands, would cause more commerce for areas not previously enjoying these necessities on such a large scale. The increased grazing areas would support sheep, cows, deer, and any other grazing animals wild or domestic thus being a windfall for man and nature. Hydroelectric could become more common if dams were built, creating more energy potential and recreational spots to take retreat to. The acquisition of water itself could be less expensive because it would be easier to obtain.
Ecologically global warming could be a benefit as many energy demands could be met by hydroelectric and solar electric devices rather than fossil fuels and nuclear fuels. Growing conditions would be optimized for many types of plants while increasing the animal population that thrive in these areas. Heres one for the environmentalist; More rain forest. Side note: if temperatures decreased would not the rain forest decrease? Think of it almost everybody likes the tropical climates, it's possible that many people might not have to fly thousands of miles to enjoy the tropics. Winter energy usage would drop. More trees would grow while less would be burned in fireplaces. Vanishing rivers might reappear. The positive points on the environment are so numerous I couldn't possibly predict them all. And for the nay sayers, I am sure you can think of many negative points of such a scenario, but short of heaven it's not likely you could find a climate model that is not rife with less than perfect situations that we could opine on. But I choose to anticipate with much thoughtful consideration of the windfall of this situation as the earths cycle of moods have always been far out of control of mortal mans ability to change them. I will enjoy my God given ability to adjust to the circumstances and submit to Gods nature when the situation dictates.
Health could be a benefit in many ways, some obvious, and some not, on a warming earth. One not so obvious benefit would be caused by thick cloud cover. It would act as a barrier from the intense and destructive rays of the sun, possibly slowing the effects of aging and lessening the effects caused by solar radiation that cause cancers. When plants convert minerals and nutrients to soluble forms, then when the plants decay and build the soil up and the cycle repeats the health of the plants will increase and so it follows that the health of the animals and humans that eat the plants would benefit from the mineral and nutrient content as well. The quantity of water running down rivers, streams, over the land, into the aquifers and the water table might act to detoxify the land and lakes of salt and poisons which have been concentrated there. When the water becomes more pure so do the animals that drink it and live in it.
I hope this article can help the reader see a different side to the possibility of global warming rather than the doomsday version we here almost unceasingly in most media outlets. One of my goals in writing this article is to help the reader understand that the earth has seen this type of climate change in the past before the influences of man. We can not ignore that fact because if we do we might well be caught off guard when it continues despite our efforts to stop it. Perhaps we can adjust our lives by learning to live with what we can not change in the case of global fluctuations
We might have to travel farther to ski.


~~~~Ivan~~~><//>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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