The Fashion of Optimal Climate Stasis

Remember global cooling? If you don’t, you’re not alone; few people do. But the fact that climate hysteria has made a 180-degree turn begs the question: Is any climate change acceptable?

That’s a point that’s not made often enough by climate skeptics. So now NASA administrator Michael Griffin has raised hackles among climate alarmists by making that point on National Public Radio yesterday:

I have no doubt that … a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth’s climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn’t change.

Do advocates of the Kyoto Protocol and similar carbon limitation schemes believe that our current climate is not optimal? If not, they should clarify and say as much.