Climate Cycle is Primary
Factor in Global Warming, Cooling; New NCPA Study Shows Human Activities Have
Little If Any Impact
September 30, 2005 — By National Center for Policy Analysis
DALLAS — Human activities have little to do with the Earth’s current warming
trend, according to a study published today by the National Center for Policy
Analysis (NCPA). In fact, the study concludes that global warming and cooling
seem to be part of a 1,500-year cycle of moderate temperature swings.
“The geographic range and variety of evidence supporting a 1,500- year cycle is
too great to dismiss,” said S. Fred Singer, co-author of the study, professor
emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia and president of
the Science and Environment Policy Project. “Evidence from every continent and
ocean confirms the 1,500-year cycle,” added Dennis Avery, senior fellow at the
Hudson Institute and co-author of the study.
Within the 90,000-year Ice Age cycles, the Earth also experiences 1,500-year
warming-cooling cycles, according to the study, and warming likely will continue
for another 200 years or more. The study’s findings are drawn from physical
evidence of past climate cycles that have been documented by researchers around
the world from tree rings and ice cores, stalagmites and dust plumes,
prehistoric villages and collapsed cultures, fossilized pollen and algae
skeletons, titanium profiles and niobium ions, and other sources.
Considered collectively, the study’s findings are clear and convincing evidence
of a 1,500-year climate cycle. And if the current warming trend is part of an
entirely natural cycle, as the study concludes, then actions to prevent further
warming would be futile, could impose substantial costs upon the global economy
and lessen the ability of the world’s peoples to adapt to the impacts of climate
change.
“Are human activities, including the burning of fossil fuel, the primary or even
significant cause of the current warming trend? The scientifically appropriate
answer — cautious and conforming to the facts — is probably not,” the authors
said.
About the National Center for Policy Analysis
The NCPA is a non-profit, nonpartisan research institute with offices in Dallas
and Washington, D. C. that advocates private solutions to public policy
problems. We depend on the contributions of individuals, corporations and
foundations that share our mission. The NCPA accepts no government grants.
Contact
Richard W. Walker
800-859-1154, ext. 13
richard.walker@ncpa.org