Several years ago I read a criticism of the Al Gore global warming claim written by Professor of Climatolgy and physics Richard Lindzen of MIT.  It was very much in the same vein as that recently  written by Jack Hellner and published in American Thinker, that cooling and warming seem to come in cycles.

I wrote to Professor Lindzen with my observation that the time period between cycles fairly closely approximates two human generations.  I further noted that the changes are cyclical and since they are spaced 40 years apart, it was more likely that our perceptions compared to our childhood experiences with winter weather drove the reverse observations of "climate change.  

In other words, by the time we, as humans, noticed the apparent change in weather as compared to our childhood view, it was time for the cycle to reverse. To put it another way, our belief in "climate change" was most likely psychologically driven.

Professor Lindzen responded that there could be merit to my observation.

Mr. Hellner's article put the issue front and center for me again with his newspaper headline timeline of claims of global warming and cooling.

Randomly, and, perhaps because of the Christmas season, I recalled the words of Irving Berlin's famous song "White Christmas."  The pertinent lyrics are:

 I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
 Just like the ones I used to know
 Where the treetops glisten
 And children listen
 To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

 I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
 With every Christmas card I write
 May your days be merry and bright
 And may all your Christmases be white.

" 'White Christmas' was written in 1940 by a Irving Berlin for the 1942 movie 'Holiday Inn' starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. Berlin's assignment was to write a song about each of the major holidays of the year. But Berlin, who was Jewish, found that writing a song about Christmas was the most challenging."

Interestingly, global warming was cited in Mr. Hellner's article (reading the headlines) in approximately 1929.  That coincides with the Dust Bowl of the US depression.

Irving Berlin's White Christmas lyrics confirm that sad look back.  Yet, magically, by 1970 we were all going to freeze to death due to, wait for it, Global Cooling.

The bottom line?  Global warming and cooling, as validated by contemporary news reports and Irving Berlin, confirm that the earth's warming and cooling extremes are cyclical, and that our perceptions are a trick of the mind.

Image credit: YouTube screen grab