GLOBAL WARMING QUESTIONED

I am seeing more "academic" articles questioning global warming as just a current phenomena. When I saw this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education questioning it, I began thinking that the questions have moved far beyond those so-called "right-wing," anti-intellectuals. I like the historical perspective of this scientist.

People have changed the planet's climate, warming the atmosphere by churning out greenhouse gases.

But that process didn't start during the Industrial Revolution. It began thousands of years ago, according to a controversial hypothesis, before anyone uttered the phrase "global warming."

The warming, triggered by a relative handful of farmers, some cutting and burning forests and others planting rice paddies, could be the best way to explain one of the strangest oddities in earth's climate record. The notion has admirers but also adamant detractors, who say it has major holes and—just as seriously—provides an excuse for skeptics of current global warming to say that climate change is a long-term trend that has little to do with car tailpipes and modern industry.