Yes, Virginia, there is a God, and He is interested in us all. This fact is suggested by the temperature record from Vostok, Antarctica.

The implications of this long view of global temperature will be politically very important in the coming days. The long view taken here shows that the current "global warming" is quite small. Like the eraser on an old pencil, it is barely detectable.

Taking the birth of Christ as 0, let’s start at 14,000 B.C. The Vostok temperature record shows the global average temperature then was about minus-10 F cooler than today, well below today’s temperatures. It was the end of a huge ice age.

The earth then warmed steadily for 4,000 years. At 10,000 B.C., the earth’s temperature was about 2 F warmer than today. At about the birth of Christ, the temperature was about one quarter to one half of a degree F cooler than today.

Today, we are about as warm as it was in 8,000 B.C., still well below the highest temperature recorded, set in 10,000 B.C.

These data can be viewed on the National Climatic Data Center’s Web page, at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/image/vostok-t.gif.

If you look at the data, you will instantly notice that the last 10,000 years have been very warm, compared to the preceding 200,000 years. That is why climatologists suggest that we are overdue for an ice age.

The warming following the last ice age has not been caused by human carbon emissions. Therefore, when some political types begin to bang on the table and shout, "we must stop carbon emissions!" you will know they are either liars or ignorant. You might show them the graph from NOAA and ask how all that warming occurred without any human activity?

They do not know. They will bluster and change the subject. They will call you names. They might even suggest that you are a radical religious right-winger, or some such thing. But all you are doing is showing them the data.

They will not answer your question. This will suggest that they aim at political control, not "saving the earth."

So do not vote for them. Instead, help the hungry grow food. That means pray and work for God’s ways to be taught and learned all over the earth. Pray for the end of dictatorships and tyranny.

There is a God, and He is interested in all of us.

WT "Ted" Hinds
Gainesville