Kerry: 'I Was Wrong' On Iraq
Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com) - U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts on Tuesday told an audience at the liberal Take Back America conference that he was sorry for voting to authorize the war in Iraq, calling the entire mission "a mistake." Full Story

Iraq War Protestors Heckle Clinton at Liberal Conference
(CNSNews.com) - When Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) spoke to the liberal "Take Back America" conference on Tuesday, she emphasized the need for Democrats to win control of Congress in November. However, her speech drew vocal protests from several attendees who demanded that she "bring the troops home now" from Iraq. Full Story

Clinton Links Republican Policies to More Hurricanes...

Whereas there may be evidence supporting global warming, the evidence for it's cause is not pointing towards people.

Of the 186 billion tons of CO2 that enter earth's atmosphere each year from all sources, only 6 billion tons are from human activity. Approximately 90 billion tons come from biologic activity in earth's oceans and another 90 billion tons from such sources as volcanoes and decaying land plants.

Dinosaurs used to live in the Northwestern part of the U.S. where it now gets very cold in the winter. Dinosaurs were cold-blooded reptiles. What does that tell you?

A good part of Texas was once underneath the ocean. What does that tell you?


In short, we know from studying the earth's history that there have been Ice Ages and global warming periods long before humans existed. Scientists do not know why these major climate changes have occurred, but there are some possibilities:

* Explosions on the sun ("sun spots")
* Volcanic eruptions on a massive scale
* Changes in earth orbit
* Changes in earth's orientation toward the sun
* Explosions caused by large meteors hitting the earth

As the world evolves, changes in the earth's environment affect the climate in various ways. For example, explosions on the sun generate even more heat than the sun normally gives off and some of this heat makes it to the earth causing rising temperatures. Volcanic eruptions on Earth can cause temperatures to decrease, because the smoke and gases given off can act like an umbrella shade and prevent sunlight from passing through the atmosphere. Any slight change in the earth's orbit could cause the earth to move closer or farther away from the sun. This could radically change temperatures, because the earth would be closer or farther away from its principle source of heat.

"...the Earth was evidently coming out of a relatively cold period in the 1800's so that warming in the past century may be part of this natural recovery."

Dr. John R. Christy

Climate change is controlled primarily by cyclical eccentricities inEarth's rotation and orbit, as well as variations in the sun's energy output.

"Greenhouse gases" in Earth's atmosphere also influence Earth's temperature, but in a much smaller way. Human additions to total greenhouse gases play a still smaller role, contributing about 0.2% - 0.3% to Earth's greenhouse effect.

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Major Causes of Global Temperature Shifts

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(1) Astronomical Causes

• 11 year and 206 year cycles: Cycles of solar variability ( sunspot activity )
• 21,000 year cycle: Earth's combined tilt and elliptical orbit around the Sun ( precession of the equinoxes )
• 41,000 year cycle: Cycle of the +/- 1.5° wobble in Earth's orbit ( tilt )
• 100,000 year cycle: Variations in the shape of Earth's elliptical orbit ( cycle of eccentricity )

(2) Atmospheric Causes

• Heat retention: Due to atmospheric gases, mostly gaseous water vapor (not droplets), also carbon dioxide, methane, and a few other miscellaneous gases-- the "greenhouse effect"
• Solar reflectivity: Due to white clouds, volcanic dust, polar ice caps

(3) Tectonic Causes

• Landmass distribution: Shifting continents (continental drift) causing changes in circulatory patterns of ocean currents. It seems that whenever there is a large land mass at one of the Earth's poles, either the north pole or south pole, there are ice ages.
• Undersea ridge activity: "Sea floor spreading" (associated with continental drift) causing variations in ocean displacement.

For more details see:

http://www.uwm.edu/~vcronin/422-100.glaciers.html
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/milankovitch.html
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_233658.htm
http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/SES302/01Lectures/302Lecture34.pdf