Global Warming? Climate Change? How about Earth Science!

Does Earth's climate change? Of course. Often.

We are geoscientists, we know from the geologic record that environmental conditions change, this is absolutely true.

In central Ohio in fact, something like 10,000 years ago there was a mile and a half of glacial ice sitting on the ground. Does 10,000 years sound like a long time to you? It isn't. When you visit the Bahamas does it occur to you that it is strange that the rocks that make up the island are corals? If you look close enough you will see even the same species as you can see living in the reefs 100 yards offshore! How did the coral reef get up there on the land? It grew there my friend, in place, when the ocean level was higher than it is today. In fact, in the geologic record one can identify a plethora of indicators of the climate changing. It has happened before, it will happen again.

Scientific research within the geosciences will continue to help us understand the mechanics and underlying causes of the observed changes. It is important that science be kept sacred. Scientific study is a continuum effort that add to our knowledge base. It suffers immensely by fits and starts of funding as well as socially driven research whims (ie global warming).

The alarmists would like you to believe that the crisis called global warming (although they are no trying to supplant that term with "climate change") is something we can do something about (remember the bumper sticker "stop continental drift"?). As if we can control mother earth. Our recent friend Hurricane Ike should make us consider this.

Are we causing climate change? Is anthropomorphic carbon dioxide to blame

I have many very smart colleagues who believe we are.

I have many very smart colleagues who believe we are not.

Quite frankly, we are skeptical, but we are also not researching and studying the question either, so we don't THINK it is, and that is an opinion, subject to change.

Science will, eventually, sort it out (much like the goofy theory of continental drift).

We support advancing and escalated funding for geoscience research.