At many times in the past, the earth's climate has been warmer than it is today. During the period known as the Holocene Climate Optimum, global temperatures were about two degrees Celsius, or about four degrees Fahrenheit, higher than they are today. During the Holocene Climate Optimum, warmer temperatures and an associated increase in rainfall facilitated the development of agriculture, village communities, and eventually cities by humankind in many parts of the world.
The increased global temperatures of the Holocene Climate Optimum warmed the world's oceans, causing increased evaporation, creating more clouds and storms, and ultimately increasing rainfall throughout the Tropical, Subtropical, and Temperate zones encircling the earth. During the Holocene Climate Optimum, California, the southwestern and southern USA, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, the Ukraine, India, China, and northern Africa all recieved more rainfall than they do today. During the Holocene Climate Optimum, the Sahara desert became a lush savannah punctuated with rivers and lakes that supported elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, humans, and the cattle the humans had domesticated. During that time, agriculture spread from the Middle East into Europe, rice cultivation spread throughout east Asia, and maize, bean, and squash cultivation spread throughout Central America.
The global warming of the Holocene Climate Optimum also caused global sea levels to rise by about two meters, or nearly seven feet. Evidence for that rise in global sea levels has been found in many places, including southern Mesopotamia and in numerous five thousand year-old beaches and coral deposits found throughout the world which are now standing two meters above the present sea level.
In the current hysteria about Global Warming, or 'Climate Change', as it is now being called, the emphasis has been entirely placed on the predicted undesirable effects of Global Warming, and the possible benefits of Global Warming are very seldom mentioned. Al Gore, James Hansen, and the other Jeremiahs of Global Warming or 'Climate Change' warn us about catastrophic rises in sea levels which will inundate major cities and about chronic, severe droughts which they claim will dessicate and devastate most of the major agricultural zones of the earth.
The geologic evidence from the Holocene Climate Optimum proves that Global Warming will indeed raise global sea levels with catastrophic effects on major cities and low-lying districts throughout the world. However, the evidence from the Holocene Climate Optimum also shows that Global Warming should improve global agriculture by warming and widening the earth's Tropical, Subtropical, and Temperate zones, and by increasing rainfall throughout the world. The loss of some major cities to rising sea levels will certainly be traumatic, but the loss of those cities will be offset by an increase in agricultural production, forestry, and grazing areas throughout the world. The increase in agricultural, timber, and livestock production which would result from an increase of two degrees Celsius of Global Warming is badly needed in our increasingly over-populated world.
Plants breathe CO2; they require CO2 to live and they thrive on it. Many professional growers pump CO2 into their greenhouses to increase plant production. Numerous land and satellite-based studies have shown an increase in global biomass during the time period that is associated with Global Warming. According to NASA scientist Ramakrishna Nemani, “Between 1982 and 1999, twenty-five percent of the Earth’s vegetated area experienced increasing plant productivity—a total increase of about six percent.”
Al Gore, James Hansen, and the other prophets of Climate Change catastrophe never mention the actual and potential benefits of Global Warming. Why is that? Isn't science supposed to be about objectivity? Al Gore has invested heavily in carbon credit brokerage firms. For Gore, there is a financial profit to be made from promoting Global Warming alarmism.