I've recently been responding to various requests to sign petitions related to Obama's environmental treachery, the latest being the Keystone pipeline project and canceling of EPA standards. One response I got on a Facebook post was what looked to be a rather cynical request to explain why humans were to blame for the "Little Ice Age" (LIA).

It's been many years since I was actively involved in researching this "event" but I do recall speculation on possible anthropogenic factors influencing the climate from 1550 AD to 1850 AD, NASA's definition of the LIA time period. My own Master's research centered on neoglacial geomorphology of an area on the border of Yosemite National Park. My findings were inconclusive and much of what I had thought were of LIA origin were in fact Pleistocene (according to lake varves sampled many years after my own research).

The phenomena defining the LIA is just a blip when compared with known glacial periods but they are well known blips as they are historical and are relatively well documented. Pleistocene events, on the other hand, are not particularly well documented. Nevertheless, if LIA conditions were to be repeated today the results could be catastrophic for much of the world's human population. One need only look at the effect of a single storm (Katrina for example) on population centers. Imagine if such storms were frequent, say two or three in a season even if for only a single year or two, let alone for a decade or more, such as were LIA conditions.

One of the proposed mechanisms for the onset of the LIA is a slowing of thermohaline circulation. An influx of massive amounts of fresh water into the salt water current could slow or even cancel the current resulting in a rapid cooling in the areas effected. In the case of the LIA, ice cap melting during the medieval warm period is the hypothetical agent. The earth is now experiencing a rather rapid loss in it's ice caps resulting in an influx of fresh water into saline oceans. This could presumably effect thermohaline circulation, thus storm tracks and intensities.

None of this addresses the question of whether or not humans are or were responsible for effecting climate change but my own opinion is it's incredibly stupid to think otherwise. Humankind is not to be held wholly accountable but our contributions are at least of major significance. The effect of which may be the difference between a catastrophe and just an inconvenience.

One of my favorite proposed solutions is to remove all of our major industry off planet. Colonize the moon, build orbiting stations. The energy is free. No environmental statements are required (just keep orbiting debris to a minimum), and we already have the technology to do it. What we don't have is the will and we have several major corporations whose profits would be diminished by such a move. Think of the jobs this would create.