Unorthodox Thoughts

Global warming is a controversial topic and the reason for the controversy has a lot more to do with economics and semantics than science.  To me, the whole semantics of the argument are divisive and need to be broadened and simplified.

All one has to do is ignore the reports from CNN, BBC and FOX News and spend ten minutes reading about the cycles of glaciation on this planet to understand what is happening.

Since the end of the last ice age roughly 12,500 years ago, the global sea level has risen roughly 360 feet.  What caused the rise is of course a combination of natural processes already underway, additional heat entropy and gas venting caused by the occasional volcanic eruption and most likely the presence of 7 billion energy-consuming, modern humans.

Our planet is currently in what is known as an interglacial (time between glacial periods) called the Holocene epoch, depicted in these images.  It seems that ice and permafrost have a role in locking up CO2 and methane and when they melt, it gets released.  What is very interesting and uncanny to me are the potential timeline correlations between the ‘Flood myths’ common to most cultures on Earth that I refer to in my post below.  To me, the correlation from man’s memory of a global flooding catastrophe and observed science is related to what scientists call a ‘meltwater pulse’, which happened at times to varying degrees both on a local and global level- perhaps explaining man’s ‘Flood myths’.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaciation

What has everyone excited about global warming is that this natural process of our ice melting and reforming could be accelerating now.  This would cause sea levels to rise, perhaps rapidly, perhaps not.  In any regard, this fear of sudden or prolonged sea level rise is both healthy and logical in my opinion.

My hope for the argument of global warming is that maybe a few people read this post and it slightly alters their perception of this topic as well as their understanding that ancient man can speak to us from the past, even if only through myth.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outburst_flood

Conservatives could look to religious doctrine such as our Great Flood and align them with scientific fact.  Examine this article I found on the National Center for Science Education website> http://ncse.com/cej/8/2/flood-mesopotamian-archaeological-evidence

Liberals could re-align the semantic of global warming to a broader pattern of climate change and apply a more non-divisive method of attacking the problem of human interaction within the environment.

Tags: flood myths, glacial periods, global sea level