Now For the GOOD News About Global Warming
Nobody Knows: “It is lack of confidence more than anything else that kills a civilization. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion just as effectively as by bombs.†Kenneth Clark
Who’s Kenneth Clark you might ask? Lord Kenneth Clark was born in 1903. He was educated at Oxford, and did a television series for the BBC many years ago called “Civilization.†He was anti-Marxist, anti-elitist, anti-monarchy, and even back in 1969, when the rest of the world was reading the “Whole Earth Catalog†in between tokes on their bongs, he was writing a book to go along with the series refuting the environmentalists…called, by the same name: Civilization.
My kind of guy.
He was one of our planet’s most educated intellectuals (back when Intellectuals were actually allowed to think for themselves) that reported the fact that “global warming†had happened all throughout history. And he reported this WAY before Al Will Gore and Dicrapio even thought of making their big bucks off of scaring everyone with the end of earth as we know it. Back in 1969 he called his second chapter, “The Great Thaw.â€
“There have been times in history of man when the earth seems suddenly to have grown warmer or more radio-active…the fact remains that three or four times in history man has made a leap forward that would have been unthinkable under ordinary evolutionary conditions.‖ Chapter two, “Civilizationâ€
Too bad Kenneth isn’t alive today, because if he were, upon hearing that the earth was going into another warming period he would probably say—“Oh, that’s certainly GREAT news.â€
Because the real facts are: ALL THE GREATEST STRIDES OF MANKIND HAPPENED IN THE FOUR PAST GLOBAL WARMINGS;
1. First Global Warming: This happened in 3000 B.C., when quite suddenly, OH MY! Oh my! Civilization appeared! Not only in Egypt and Mesopotamia but in the Indus valley! FOOD could be grown. What? You thought Abraham did all that walking and wandering around during an ice age? Solomon’s Gardens were just a myth? That entire locus attack from Moses, which came up from the Nile fed on sand?
2. Second Global Warming: Late sixth Century B.C.: Not only did this global warming help the miracle of Greece and Ionia, where philosophy, science, art, poetry, all reached a point that wasn’t reached again for 2000 years …but India had a great spiritual enlightment. Without that warming period…the ideas of Western thought would never have flourished… (Only to go into the dark ages as the weather cooled) to be discovered again later.
3. The Third Global Warming, the year 1100:—this warm up affected the whole world.
“Action, philosophy, organization, technology—there was an extraordinary outpouring of energy. Popes, emperors, kings, bishops, saints, scholars, philosophers, were all larger than life…the First Crusade.â€
It was so warm that huge castles and thousands of churches were built in less time than it takes to build a World Trade Center Memorial today in New York City!
4. The Fourth Global Warming: 15th century: We ALL know what happened here. An outpouring of intellectual giants—Da Vinci, Michangelo, the seeds of capitalism, banking, astronomy, medicine, the beginning of the scientific method…every one was just busy, busy, busy.
So, if we can learn anything from history—whenever the earth has grown warmer, mankind has jump by leaps and bounds into furthering its journey into great inventions, new philosophies, technology, and certainly a great time to rejoice, along with your A.C.
Which means that this it NOT the time to be depressed. On the contrary, it’s a time to be very excited.
The nasty secret is; global warming has always been throughout mankind…a VERY, VERY good thing.
But, don’t tell that to Al Gore. He’s still in the dark ages.
Anyway, that’s what Sir Kenneth Clark said so many years ago, and it makes sense to me. Just thought you might like to know.
I am a nobody. If the different classes of America were color-coded, I would be in your yucky brown, one rink up from the bottom. I grew up in Naples, Florida and live near the Mississippi River now with my husband and two dogs. I am part of the slowly disappearing middle-class. I was a musician most of my life;drummer/singer/keyboards---but I retired before the plastic surgery flu hit. I have no degrees, which could be a good thing...depending on how you view our educational system. I do have three patents...but that really doesn't make me a somebody. The one thing that is constant in my life is my OPINIONS...which I have more of than perhaps even Carl Sagan could have imagined, mostly political. Hopefully other nobodys will put their opinions on my site. But if you are a sombody...you're more than welcomed to help out. I will try to prove that sometimes nobody knows the answers, sometimes nobody cares, sometimes nobody wins, and most importantly...NOBODY is perfect. Please bear this in mind when you read my thoughts. I don't mean to offend nobody, it's all in good fun. | More from Joyanna Adams
Stumble It!
May 23rd, 2007 at 10:25 am
Joyanna, you’re laboring under a false assumption (according to Algore and his ilk) – that being ‘having humans around is a good thing.’ They want far less of us around so Gaia and her true children (animals) can be all they can be. To them a true “renaissance” can only occur when we go back to living in caves and we outlaw toilet paper. To them, even one sheet is too much.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Golly, gosh, I haven’t given a passing thought to Sir Ken for ages. What a splendid reprise, Joy. Thank you. (He was superceded in what passes for the Brit imagination and hero staus by Red Ken Livingstone, the marxist Mayor of London). But Lord Clarke was that quintessential English Aristocrat, beautifully educated in the Classics, generous in his desire to share and enhance knowledge, enamoured by fine ‘things’ and achievements, discerning, and frankly, kind. He had that ‘oblige’ that goes with the best ideas of nobility. A far cry from the erzatz aristocracy of Baron AlGore.
It was pleasant, also, to be reminded of the Whole Earth Catalog, which I had of course. Gee, I wish it hadn’t disappeared with the jetsom of life. It would be worth a few bob now. A relic of a past age.
It is autumn here, winter around the corner. Cooling down a bit. The usual ‘Portugese’ summer climate here, which unlike Portugal is washed by Antarctic winds and water in winter, is bringing on the annual descent into long nights and the cold blasts of the roaring forties as they slip south. Roll on Global Warming 5.
The prayer of the Englishman – “Oh Lord, make me brown, like the Australians – but not the burnt ones”.
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Great commentary! But sure, some were reading the “Whole Earth Catalog†in between tokes on their bongs — but there were those of us who were talented enough to be reading it DURING tokes on bongs.
Another thoughtful piece. Thanks!
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Thanks guys…I needed a laugh tonight!
May 24th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Sorry to put a crimp in your little thesis, but things were quite different for humans and the environment during those four earlier episodes so an extrapolation may be unwarranted. In particular, the planet was nowhere near its carrying capacity (of humans) like it’s thought to be now. There are many more instances where civilizations have had a rough time or gone by the boards entirely due to a change for the worse in the climate.
May 24th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
MartianBachelor says, “In particular, the planet was nowhere near its carrying capacity (of humans) like it’s thought to be now”.
There is no valid knowledge or even information about ‘carrying capacity’of Planet Earth. Those who say we are near the carrying capacity limit are simply guessing, from their own preconceptions. There is no reason to think that a planet this size cannot host at least 50 billion humans at any one time. Show me otherwise.
“There are many more instances where civilizations have had a rough time or gone by the boards entirely due to a change for the worse in the climate.”
Weenies. Clearly they didn’t tear the hearts out of enough sacrificial victims or build pyramids to the right design. We are more efficient now. We can make victim production lines and the more folk there are, the more sacrifices we can make. See. there’s always a solution. !