Jimmy Wike

In My Opinion

I read Mr. Loomis' opinion piece, published in the June 13 edition of the Desert Valley Times and, unfortunately, he left out many inconvenient truths about global warming.

First of all, the long-term trend for planet Earth is a cooling one. If you remember your lessons from science classes, you will recall that the Earth started out as a molten ball and over hundreds of millions of years began to cool, eventually forming a mantle or crust and creating an atmosphere and the oceans. The volcanic activity that permeated the Earth has also diminished over time, reflective of a continuing cooling. It's not a diabolical plot, rather just what happens in the life of a solar system.

The truth about global warming is obvious

Secondly, we're currently in the middle of an Ice Age. The Earth has experienced five major ice ages and this one is called the Quaternary. It has been characterized by alternating periods of glaciation averaging 70,000-90,000 years and interglacial warming periods of 10,000-30,000 years.

There have been approximately a dozen epochs of glaciation interspersed with interglacials over the last million years. Our current interglacial, the Holocene epoch, began about 12,000 years ago. At the peak of the last glaciation, about 18,000 years ago, there were ice caps and glaciers over two miles high covering Detroit and much of North America, Europe, and the southern parts of South America and Africa.

During this last glaciation, the oceans were 400 feet lower than present and it was during this time that the Aborigines walked to Australia and the ancestors of the first Americans walked across the Bering Strait. Please feel free to Google “Ice Ages, Glaciation, History of the Earth,” etc.

Thirdly, what involvement in the warming of the planet does man play? Climate is not caused by humans but is determined by solar activity, gravitational influences, and orbital considerations.

What man does do is degrade and pollute the climate -- much as they do the oceans, lakes and streams. What undetermined effect that degradation and pollution has on the temperature is secondary to the actual degradation and pollution that we are all subject to.

It's too bad the global warming enthusiasts haven't shifted the focus to the pollution of the planet rather than man-made global warming, as I think there would be more support and less polarization (no pun intended).

The EPA initially did a great job cleaning up our rivers, lakes and streams by focusing on the pollution aspect. In any event, should all combustion engines be eliminated, it will still get warmer minus normal fluctuations in all weather patterns until the next inevitable period of glaciation begins.

Finally, change in the planet is continual and evolutional.

Remember, the seas have risen 400 feet in the last 18,000 years. Just because current sea levels are familiar and comfortable to us, it doesn't mean that's where they're "supposed" to be. Sea levels have been higher and lower, temperatures have been hotter and cooler, but the humans’ self-perception of omnipotence remain the same.

The belief that mankind can alter the trajectory of forces far beyond our current capability is interesting but, at this time, not likely. At least the changes are slow enough to allow for adaptation or at least the development of technology and habitat that allow us to minimize the effects of those changes.

Jimmy Wike lives in Mesquite.