Gosh almighty and gee whiz — what a shock it is to discover that nature often operates in cycles. One would think that obvious fact was as clear as night and day and the four seasons of the year. Apparently to some it wasn’t, or at least it never appeared to have been considered by global warming alarmists who preached putting trust in faulty science instead of historically observable water level patterns on the Great Lakes.

On the other hand, maybe they never really believed the tripe they were spouting. Perhaps it was only opportunistic propaganda to advance their political agenda. Regardless, they should not be allowed to get away with it. Global warming alarmists ought to be called to the mat for either duplicity or foolishness. Attention needs to be called to the fact that nature is proving their disaster-mongering claims about low Great Lakes water levels untrue.

After about 13 years of low water levels on the Great Lakes, the four western lakes, Superior, Michigan-Huron and Erie (not to mention St. Clair) are all above their long-term October averages. Meanwhile, Lake Ontario is two inches below the long-term average, after being a couple of inches above it this summer. That’s according to the Army Corps of Engineers, which has been keeping track since 1918.

During that recent and brief (less than a millisecond in terms of geology and climate) span of years — while the levels were down — the alarmists presented the situation as undeniable evidence of impending climate change doom. A major element of this Chicken Little message was that we — us rascally, irresponsible humans — were the cause of the alleged crisis.

Forget that over the comparatively short 90-some years that consistent records had been kept, low water level periods commenced in 1926, 1963 and 2000. Look closely at those years and you’ll notice the amazing 37-year cycles. Study old newspapers and you’ll find that same basic cycle going back even further. Listen to those who have sifted the sedimentary shoreline evidence and they’ll tell you the high and low cycle can be traced back thousands of years. They’ll also tell you that none of the water level fluctuations witnessed over the past few hundred years have been outside the range of what had occurred previously.

In spite of dire-sounding headlines fostering a provably false message that low Great Lakes water levels signaled something unnatural and unprecedented, the levels are back up again. They are up again, as they were in the 1980s after the low levels of the 1960s and early 1970s. They are up again, as they were in the 1950s after the low levels of the 1920s and early 1930s. They are up again, demonstrating once more how global warming alarmists distort short-term variations of nature to advance their dogma.

Global warming alarmists shouldn’t be allowed to duck this one. They need to be held accountable for all of their past claims. The alarmists screech and holler, but when their assertions and predictions are debunked, they are consistently allowed to move on to the next temporary circumstance they seek to exploit. It’s high time that they suffer the loss of credibility they deserve. News media and politicians have a responsibility to stand up and take notice when the claims of global warming alarmists are revealed to have been hogwash. Our society in general has a right to be told the true score.

The Great Lakes are a major feature of Earth and can be clearly spotted from the surface of the moon. They contain 6 quadrillion gallons of water; fully one-fifth of the fresh water on the planet. If all of the water in the Great Lakes was spread across the United States, it would be 9 feet deep. The Great Lakes are significant enough and important enough to be used to expose just how global warming propagandists operate and why only the gullible believe what they say.

Reporters and interviewers who let this slide will be displaying either their ignorance or irresponsibility. From now on, when global warming alarmists try to sell their mythology, their false claims about the Great Lakes water levels need to be used to refute them.

But don’t hold your breath — odds are that these merchants of misrepresentation will be allowed to escape once more. The manmade climate change/global warming industry is powerful enough to keep the debacle of the Great Lakes crisis scare hushed up. With billions in taxpayer subsidies to be collected by simply spray-painting old-fashioned corporate welfare green, we can rest assured that the propaganda will not cease.

(Editor’s note: Jack Spencer is Capitol Affairs Specialist for Michigan Capitol Confidential and a veteran, Lansing-based journalist. His columns do not necessarily represent the views of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy or Michigan Capitol Confidential.)

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.