By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Man is bent on blaming mankind for one thing or another, every day of the week. The latest is the crime the human race has committed against its dear Mother Earth. It appears that during the last 100 years or so, ending in 2005, the global average temperature's surface has risen by less than 1� Celsius. Is this a big deal? Dear, dear! 'The sky is falling' and we are in imminent danger of extermination, burnt to ashes together with our planet. Why did we ever do that? According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), human activity of progress and production, is the culprit. Greenhouse gas emissions from factories, automobiles, aeroplanes, from the burning of oil, coal, and gas, are contributing to man's destruction, not to mention Nature: "Man is the worst thing that happened to nature," claim nature lovers, who further condemn man for his bad habits, trashing his poor planet in this abusive manner. One can hardly keep a straight face listening to all the sermons on global warming, when in Egypt most of us have frozen feet having experienced the coldest winter in decades. Likewise, the Chinese must be laughing their tails off as they shovel snow and hail, and struggle against severe weather conditions that have totally immobilized the country -- their worst winter in the last half century. Other places in the northeast and southeast of the US are also facing record temperature drops this winter, and last winter was considered one of the coldest in the region. With such glaring facts contradicting global warming, scepticism is warranted before we condemn man for inhabiting this planet. But dare we speak? Adherents of global warming are numerous and powerful and will silence any dissenters. An army of environmental scientists, liberal thinkers, movie stars, and of course the media, not to mention a former VP of the USA. He leads the angry pack. Existence of the greenhouse effect as such, is not disputed. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases have a mean warming effect of 33 degrees Centigrade, without which, earth would be uninhabitable. What about this present warming trend? Is it unprecedented, or does it fall within normal climatic variations? Earth's climate has been changing constantly over its five-billion year history. Sometimes the climate warmed so that the oceans have risen and covered much of the earth's surface. A rapid build-up of greenhouse gases amplified warming in the early Jurassic period (180 million years ago) with average temperatures rising 5 degrees Centigrade. CO2 levels dropped back to normal over the next 150,000 years. 800,000 years ago Earth experienced 8 glacial cycles, with interglacial warm periods comparable to present temperatures -- no planes, trains, or automobiles then! Thirty thousand years ago North America was covered by ice sheets. Some 14,000 years ago the last ice-sheet began to melt very quickly. Within 7,000 years the ice was gone. As recently as the 14th century, Europeans lived through what is known as 'The Little Ice Age' which lasted several hundred years, causing starvation and migration to warmer climates. These changes cause extermination of plants and animals that prefer colder climates. Ignoring the natural cyclical weather changes brought on by Nature herself, the proponents of global warming have used the media as their most powerful tool to brainwash most of us into believing that man caused a natural disaster by warming up his planet. Andrew Neil of the BBC stated that "There is a great danger that on some issues we're beginning to be a one-party state in which we are meant to have only one kind of view." You don't have to be a climate change denier to recognise that there's a great range of opinion on the subject. All fingers point to the Kyoto Protocol as the most prominent international agreement on climate change -- man's only solution and salvation, ratified by 160 countries except for the US and some minor African nations. It is also highly controversial. The Kyoto protocol goes too far for some and not enough for others. Seeking the truth can be costly, and sad. Several global warming sceptics have to go underground for fear of loss of job or research money. "You can't get grants unless you say 'oh, global warming, yes, yes, carbon dioxide" complains Reid Beyson, atmospheric scientist. Similar claims are made by climatologist Marcel Lerous, NASA's Roy Spencer and Phillip Stott of the University of London, among others. Ronald Bailey author of Global Warming and Other Eco Myths, changed sides and is now an advocate of global warming. Ah! the lure of gold prevails. According to the BBCs Panorama "there is scientific evidence that human activity has little to do with global warming." A report in London's Daily Telegraph reflects that even the IPCC is not certain about its own conclusions, since it declared that "Mankind has had less effect on global warming than previously thought." The IPCC involved 2000 scientists from over 100 nations -- impressive! However, there are over 7,400 atmospheric scientists in the US alone. So 2,000 worldwide would now seem less impressive, perhaps? Several renowned scientists agree that the Kyoto Protocol is based on flawed ideas. The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine began a petition project in 2001 to dissuade the US from signing on, collecting more than 17,000 signatures of basic and applied scientists. I will opt for the majority. Hero of the IPCC and all environmentalists at large is former US Vice President Al Gore. Neither a scientist nor a climatologist, gone stumbled on global warming at Harvard and adopted it as his pet hobby. His most recent effort is a documentary film entitled An Inconvenient Truth. Cheered by liberals, it was quickly rewarded an Oscar in ultra-liberal Hollywood, which inspired the Nobel organizers to follow suit and offer Mr. Gore the coveted Peace Prize for 2007. Excuse me! Where have all the sane men gone? An Inconvenient Truth has been massacred by scientists who disagree with the IPCC report and with Al Gore. Patrick Michaels, a scholar with the Cato Institute compared Gore to the "proverbial nut that grew onto a great oak by standing his ground". The very liberal NY Times who are proponents of global warming, reported a concern stating that it is exaggerated and erroneous. Gore brushes all criticism aside as minor and "we all have the same goals." Man committed errors of ignorance. Ecology is a young science and with our new found knowledge of the eco system, most of us wish to make amends to preserve and improve our planet. In this compulsive course of destruction in order to save mankind, nature and Earth, could we please spare some integrity so we can know where the honest truth lies - convenient or not? "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt" -- Bertrand Russel (1872-1970)
