If God thinks homosexuality is such an abomination then why did he create homosexuality in the first place?* Homosexuality is not just a human trait. It occurs and has been documented in many other animal species often in similar proportions to humans. Why would there be homosexuality in the non-human animal kingdom unless it's something that happens naturally?

* As an agnostic that's a rhetorical question for me.

Being a Nazi or a member of the KKK are not protected classes since they are personal choices, not inherent qualities.

The study I cite is about some blue oak in a specific location so I'm not sure how broad an area it can be applied to. But the main point was that although the lack of precipitation was not unprecedented the high temperatures that exacerbated the drought by drying out the soil more than in past droughts may well be unprecedented. The study I cited asserted that. At this point I'm not trying to tie it to AGW other than to say it's the sort of thing you'd expect to happen because of it. The real answer is in the long term statistics and how they change over time.

I'm not sure that brain size by itself is a particular indicator of intelligence but when it's combined with poor nutrition and stressful living it probably is correlated. If you're concerned about the welfare state then it's something that should concern you. People with low intelligence are much more likely to require welfare to get along in life.

Thanks, that was an interesting paper. But it was published in 1999 so it would be interesting to see something more recent than that and they talk more about regional changes than global changes.

I don't see that your cite necessarily contradicts the one I cited.

No it couldn't. I certainly could cause a cold period that lasts for a decade or two but after all the aerosols that got kicked up fell back out of the atmosphere you'd be back where you were before.

No doubt but that goes both ways.

It is not a guess. It's what scientists who have studied the matter say. And I was being generous. Scientists say CO2 levels probably have to get down around 250 ppm for a new glaciation to commence.

Again the Central Greenland ice core graph that AC threw at me above. Tell me how that relates to global temperatures. You need to broaden your view.

Perhaps you could point out a specific ice age where CO2 was 7000 ppm. I've never heard of it. There were ice ages when CO2 was as high or somewhat higher than it is now but the configuration of the continents was entirely different and the Sun was not quite as strong as it is now.

Really?!!! One measurement of a Central Greenland ice core is going to tell us all we need to know about temperatures. I don't think so.

How unusual is the 2012–2014 California drought?

By Daniel Griffin and Kevin J. Anchukaitis, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 41, Issue 24, December 2014

I live a bit south of you in the Willamette Valley and I remember that cold stretch back in December. It's been a strange winter. No snow in the Cascades where there should be 4 feet or more of snow pack by now.

Those guys attacking AGW need to get out more.

The issue isn't so much the proper temperature but the rate at which temperature is changing. The current rate of change is around 2 orders of magnitude greater than it was coming out of the last ice age.