Heat Wave Not Caused By *Man-Made* Climate Change

The media have worked themselves into a frenzy covering the record 2012 US Heat Wave. Sensational headlines can be found everywhere, even on the conservative Drudge Report, whose top story today was "From Boil To Broil". Not surprisingly, the pastors of the Church of Man-Made Global Warming have been preaching that this period of extreme weather is evidence of man-made global warming. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are in the congregation: A recent survey (.pdf) conducted by Yale University concluded that 69% of Americans believe that recent extreme weather has been caused by global warming, and, according to Gallup, 60% of Americans believe it has been caused by influenced by "human activity" .

One record heat wave doesn't make a trend, and even NASA, a government agency whose funding is partially tied to climate change research, admits that the world has cooled since 1998. But, assuming the planet is warming, does that necessarily mean that humans are the cause? Of course not. In 2007 the green movement-sympathising National Geographic admitted that melting polar ice caps on Mars puts the prospect of man-made global warming into question. And this week the Daily Mail reported that a lost kingdom lies beneath the North Sea, evidence that sea levels rose dramatically during a period in which man clearly had little impact on global temperatures. In the article, Dr. Richard Bates of the University of St. Andrews, who created an exhibit of artifacts excavated from the submerged land, gave an outstanding quote regarding man-made global warming:

People seem to think rising sea levels are a new thing, but it’s a cycle of Earth's history that has happened many, many times.

The current heat wave may or may not be caused by global warming. But even if it is caused by global warming, that doesn't necessarily mean it's caused by man-made "climate change".