The mainstream media has been going nuts this week because the new head of the EPA doesn’t believe that free carbon has any effect on climate change!
There are a lot of different factors that come into play to create the climate we enjoy on our world.

Volcanism and plate tectonics have a very powerful influence on our world’s climate!

Every so often, the seam running through the Atlantic (the Mid Atlantic Ridge) from the North Pole down almost to Antarctica oozes lava.
Then there’s the Ring of Fire in the Pacific (I was raised on the Ring of Fire: the ground there is NEVER still).
There are volcanic hot spots all over our world! Hot spots contribute a lot of warmth to our world, and they have other interesting effects:
A strong volcanic eruption is capable of putting out many times the amount of smoke and ash, and poisonous fumes–in an incredibly short time–as the total pollution load generated by all of mankind in a year.
In any given year, there is an average of sixty volcanic eruptions! That is a whale of a lot of ash, smoke, and toxic fumes added to the air we breathe every year!
While I personally would prefer to do without all the smoke and toxic fumes, particulates from volcanic activity contribute to cloud formation and provide a catalyst for moisture droplet formation (without which, there would be no rain or other precipitation).

Solar mechanics also has a very powerful influence on our climate.

Take for instance the wobble in the earth’s orbit caused by opposing forces of gravity exerted by the sun and other planets.
When we wobble a little closer to the sun than usual, our planet grows warmer. Wobble a little further away, and temps cool…
The interaction of solar magnetism with the earth’s magnetic field. Magnets generate electricity and heat. Really large magnets can create a lot of heat! The sun and the earth both have strong magnetic fields, as do other planets in our solar system.
There’s a possibility, given the statistical rise of temps observed on planets throughout the solar system in recent history, that there are forces at work involving solar magnetism that scientists haven’t accounted for and don’t understand.
And what about the effect of sunspots and solar flares? The more sunspots, the hotter the fusion going on in the sun’s core. The fewer there are, the cooler it is. Sometimes the fusion stops altogether for a while, then starts again.
We’ve had cooler periods in history since the invention of the telescope that correlate to an observed lack of sunspots. Right now there are some sunspots, but not as many as in some previous eras.

Average temps for the past twenty years have been stable!

I mention all this to point out that there are huge natural forces driving the cycle of heating and cooling that our world is subject to. Most of them aren’t under anyone’s control, nor will they ever be!
Nor have they been properly accounted for when considering factors that play into any kind of climate change, including global warming.
We need to be realists about all of this, and not place unreasonable expectations on people to control the uncontrollable.
Aren’t you glad that God has our climate under His control? I sure am!

In my Legends of Astarkand series, there are volcanoes. The book I’m working on right now takes Bjorn past a volcanic hot spot, the Windmere. The Windmere fills a volcanic crater. Slippe Island is what is left of an ash cone from a long-ago eruption.
Click here to purchase Bjorn’s previous adventures.