Man definitely has an effect on Co2 levels in the atmosphere. We've cut down too many trees. We drive too many cars.

Experts say the global warming facts are that in the past 50 years, man made Co2 is driving the Earth's temperatures higher and higher, causing our polar ice caps to melt. Eventually, the enormous amount of fresh water from the melting ice caps being dumped into the oceans will shut off the temperature moderating Gulf Stream current, causing catastrophic climate change and ending with a new ice age.

The end of civilization as we know it.

Scary stuff...

But what if all this is just the normal way things work? Just nature doing it's thing?

The period from around 800 to 1300 AD was a time of unusually warm climate. Grain crops and wine grapes were grown in abundance as far north as northern Europe and Great Britain. Eastern Canada was called Vineland by the Vikings who took advantage of ice-free seas to colonize Greenland and other outlying lands of the far north.

Could it be that the warm temperatures of the medieval era melted the polar ice caps similar to what we see happening today? And all the fresh water that flooded into the north Atlantic shut down the climate warming Gulf Stream?

One thing is certain. Sometime between 1300 and 1350 AD, temperatures took a sudden nose dive. Evidence shows that northern air temperatures dropped by as much as 10ºC (18ºF) within decades and stayed that way for more than 500 years. Areas that previously had mild winters suddenly became bitterly cold. Famine was wide spread. Grain and grape staples had to be replaced with starchy tuberous crops like the potatoe, which could still thrive in the shorter, colder growing season.

The 500 year little ice age ended almost as abruptly as it began around 1850. And while there's no way to know if it had been caused by a shutdown of the Gulf Stream, we do know that Benjamin Franklin noted a powerful, warm, swift running river of sea water as he was sailing back from England around 1800. He named this north-flowing current the Gulf Stream.

Did colder temperatures during the little ice age re-establish the polar ice caps and turn the climate warming Gulf Stream back on? Are the rising temperatures we see today just a sign that we're still recovering from the little ice age?

The global warming facts are that man has definitely has an effect on Co2 levels in the atmosphere. Particularly in the last 50 years. And temperatures have absolutely been rising during that time. But if the warming over the last 50 years was caused by the man-made increase of Co2 in the atmosphere, as experts claim, then what caused the warming from 1850 to 1950?

Just can't get my mind around this stuff...

More ramblings here: global warming facts