What is Really Causing the Cold?

Low pressure, high pressure, the jet stream, polar vortexes and other atmospheric phenomena play key roles in making unseasonably cold weather appear in areas but to truly understand climate, you need to look at the bigger picture. The 11-year solar cycle as defined by periods of more sunspot activity or less sunspot activity produces warmer years and cooler years. Currently, we are in a cooler 11-year cycle but statistically speaking, it is not unrealistic for the opposite to occur some years.

Approximately once or twice a millennium, the Earth also experiences mini ice ages for reasons we do not yet understand though volcanism, oceanic currents and solar activity are among the various theories proposed. Approximately every one hundred thousand years, a major ice age will also occur and roughly every 23 million years, the greater orbit of the Earth relative to the sun will amplify that effect. Over still greater periods, continental drift is thought to have caused the two most severe ice ages. During the Snowball Earth periods, the planet was literally covered by ice even at the equator. Fortunately, we do not appear to be heading for any of these worst case scenarios anytime soon but climate is far more complex of an issue than most people realize and while "global warming" may be a theory, periodic global cooling is a fact of nature that will likely continue along the same patterns in the future.

Yes the ice is melting at the polar caps but we still do not know what is considered normal melting during inter-glaciation periods and in some areas the ice belt is actually increasing. Despite record cold temperatures occurring in many areas, the bias continues for "global warming" but this conclusion is not shared by all climatologists and elevated CO2 levels in the past due to natural causes may have even triggered colder periods. The truth is, we do not really know what the future will bring but we do know carbon dioxide washes out of the atmosphere with increased precipitation and CO2 and light produce photosynthesis for plants - without which, we wouldn't be here.

Truth be told, carbon dioxide may be a greenhouse gas but compared to sulfur dioxide and other volcanic gases, it has minimal impact. Popular belief is that cars and industrial processes are the leading causes of current greenhouse gas levels but that honor falls on livestock. Through the methane gas they produce, cows are responsible for more greenhouse omissions than any other culprit. Want to be green? Eat less meat! We need to stop kidding ourselves that forcing consumers to buy "green alternative" LED bulbs is going to change climate. The reality here is that these bulbs are manufactured using rare earth minerals from China that would be better used in computing devices while they are still around. Before unintended consequences put us in a worse position, we need to reexamine the effects of green policies that have been based more on conjecture in the past than the evidence actually presented.