Scientists believe that over the last two billion years or so, there have been as many as seventeen times that Earth has experienced an Ice Age.  They suspect an Ice Age when they see shifts in geological formations that are so severe that the only explanation appears to be glaciers forming and moving large quantities of land from one part of the continent to another part.

Each Ice Age is estimated to have lasted for at least 100,000 years, with some lasting millions of years.  Each was eventually followed by a period of gradual warming, resulting in the glaciers melting and retreating, and leaving behind the land that the glaciers had moved or carved.  Contrary to anything being reported in the mainstream media, we are currently living in an Ice Age.

Man did not inhabit the planet during any of the Ice Ages, except the last one.  For those Ice Ages that took place prior to man, the only inhabitants of the planet were animals and plants.  They were also all that was left when the subsequent periods of warming began and ended.  Nature, and nature alone, caused these periods of climate change.

The men and women who lived through their Ice Age, not knowing that there had been previous periods of global cooling, probably wondered what they did to cause the planet to become so cold.  Did they burn too many fires, kill too many animals for food and clothing, or not kill enough animals, resulting in excessive animal flatulence?  Or perhaps they did not wonder at all, knowing that acts of nature were beyond their control.

And herein is the problem for climate scientists.  There is no "normal" temperature for Earth.  What is normal is for the temperature, over hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of years, to vary greatly.  The cycle of periods of extreme warmth and cold, and everything in between, is what is normal.  Before man and after man, the Earth has experienced these huge swings in temperatures.  Who are we to say that the climate for the last couple of hundred-thousand years is normal and that some deviation of a degree or two is abnormal?  Who are we to say that the rising or falling of sea levels from recent levels is abnormal?  To the contrary, variations in temperatures and in sea levels have been taking place for the 4.5 billion years of the Earth's existence.  Change is what is normal.

The different Ice Ages have proven to be a reset button of sorts.  Some of them have cleansed the planet of life that had previously dominated the surface and the seas.  The glaciers destroyed that which was not wise enough or which was unable to get out of its path and then receded to leave behind a clean slate for nature to begin anew.  Destruction and renewal is what is normal.

Short of a Star Wars-like planet-annihilating Death Star, Earth will survive any attempts by man to destroy the planet.  We see the power of Earth with every hurricane, tsunami, tornado, earthquake, and volcano.  Man has yet to defeat any of these singular events.  Our batting average is .000.  Earth is pitching a perfect game against us.

This is a commonsense analysis of climate change.  It is based on the history of Earth’s climate, not on a computer model trying to predict the future.  Climate-predicting computer models are man-made, and their outcomes are self-serving for the men who designed them, while actual changes to the climate are the result of natural, cyclical forces, far beyond the control of man.

Marc Hopin is the author of the children's book The Tooth Fairy Needs Your Teeth!