Will political leaders notice the earth is cooling before starvation becomes widespread?

Computer models of the effects of global warming show increased ocean levels. That’s the theory which, up to now, has not been demonstrated.

But widespread cold weather has real and drastic effects that are felt now, not in some hypothetical century in the future. Crops need warm weather to grow. Cold weather keeps plants from germinating. Cold or wet weather prevents crops from being planted. Early frosts kill crops before they can be harvested. These are not theoretical possible futures. They are real. And they are happening now.

Crops under stress as temperatures fall

Our politicians haven't noticed that the problem may be that the world is not warming but cooling, observes Christopher Booker.

Waterworld: Floodwater surrounding a farm near Fargo, North Dakota, in March 2009

For the second time in little over a year, it looks as though the world may be heading for a serious food crisis, thanks to our old friend "climate change". In many parts of the world recently the weather has not been too brilliant for farmers. After a fearsomely cold winter, June brought heavy snowfall across large parts of western Canada and the northern states of the American Midwest. In Manitoba last week, it was -4ºC. North Dakota had its first June snow for 60 years.

There was midsummer snow not just in Norway and the Cairngorms, but even in Saudi Arabia. At least in the southern hemisphere it is winter, but snowfalls in New Zealand and Australia have been abnormal. There have been frosts in Brazil, elsewhere in South America they have had prolonged droughts, while in China they have had to cope with abnormal rain and freak hailstorms, which in one province killed 20 people.

None of this has given much cheer to farmers. In Canada and northern America summer planting of corn and soybeans has been way behind schedule, with the prospect of reduced yields and lower quality. Grain stocks are predicted to be down 15 per cent next year. US reserves of soya – used in animal feed and in many processed foods – are expected to fall to a 32-year low.

The “global warming” scare has made some people lots of money. Al Gore is reported to have harvested $100 million, thanks to his global warming businesses. It has also been a hook to hang any number of environmental restrictions on people throughout the world. It has been a potent vote getter in many Liberal districts. Virtually every Democrat in Congress has embraced the global warming religion.

So if global cooling occurs, food becomes scarce and parts of the world experience famine, can politicians recant quickly enough?