Sleep Well Little Children

Scrooge, err, Senator Bob Menendez, says "there is probably nothing we can do to save the North Pole" due to, you guessed it, 'global warming.' He published this letter today:




December 23, 2010

Dear Santa Claus,

I am writing out of concern, because you may have to move from the North Pole due to the dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice. The Navy's chief oceanographer says that by the summer of 2020 the North Pole may not have summer ice and other scientists project that an ice-free Arctic is possible as soon as 2012!

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that polar ice is melting because of greenhouse gas pollution and I am working hard to reduce these emissions. But there is probably nothing we can do in time to save the North Pole. I am worried about your safety and your ability to deliver billions of Christmas gifts if the ice cap on the North Pole no longer stays frozen all year. What will happen to your house, your workshop, the elves' houses and your reindeer barns?

I want you to know that if you want to relocate to the beautiful state of New Jersey, I would be proud to assist you. But given the climate you are accustomed to, I will understand if you would like to relocate to the South Pole. Just be sure not to move to the Antarctic Peninsula or West Antarctic ice sheet, areas that are also experiencing rapid ice melt.

Please know that I will work to mobilize the U.S. federal government to assist when you relocate. I am sure we can both agree that on a warming planet, we need to do all we can to save Christmas.

Sincerely,
Robert Menendez
U.S. Senator, D-NJ

"Save Christmas"? I thought "Christmas" was about the Birth of Christ. If we compare the climate of today versus the time of Christ, we see there is little to worry about.

According to a peer-reviewed temperature reconstruction of the last 2,000 years, temperatures when Jesus walked the earth were about the same as today! That is known to climatologists as the "Roman Warm Period" and was a time when civilization was making great progress.

Temperatures then fell as did the Roman Empire when people relocated to escape the cold. The world then warmed with temperatures warmer than today during the MWP = medieval warm period.

Temperatures for the last two thousand years as published in the peer-reviewed journal "Physical Geography", September, 2010, pp 339-351 (click to enlarge) by Fredrick Ljungqvist.

After the MWP, temperatures plummeted to the coldest of the last 2,000 years. Temperatures have been in "recovery mode" since.

So, if today's temperatures are about the same as at the time of Christ, I don't think we need to be too worried about "saving Christmas."

Based on the historical record, humanity should fear global cooling much more than warming. I'll have more on that topic next week.


Hat tip: The Huffington Post, the source of the senator's letter.