There is no such thing as human-caused global warming.

According to a report published in June by the National Research Council, the Earth’s average temperature was the hottest since the late 1600s. The reported cause? Global warming – human-caused global warming, to be exact.

Global warming is a genuine threat our generation faces today, but what would cause such high temperatures in the late 1600s? Surely the Europeans had not invented the internal combustion engine, used it and kept it hidden until its actual, recorded invention in 1854. Maybe the Mayans of South America had some carbon dioxide-emitting engine that was unfortunately destroyed when Hernando Cortez and other Spanish Conquistadors laid siege to their civilizations.

Unless our history textbooks have been grossly censored to cover up these historical events, all fingers point to a natural global warming cycle – one we cannot escape from or do anything to stop.

The Kyoto Protocol, a move by the U.N. to reduce worldwide emissions to those of pre-1990 levels, has been signed, ratified and implemented by 165 countries and government entities. India and China, however, do not have to reduce their emissions even though the two countries are emerging as top consumers of fossil fuels behind the United States. Critics of the protocol view it as entirely politically motivated, a tactic to stop the further development of industrialized countries or to transfer wealth to third-world countries.

Economists also have analyzed the effects of the protocol; estimates so far state that it would be generally more expensive to observe the protocol then not to, or that the marginal net benefit would exceed the cost of simply adjusting to global warming. A study in the journal Nature found that “accounting only for local external costs, together with production costs, to identify energy strategies, compliance with the Kyoto Protocol would imply lower, not higher, overall costs.” The prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences published in May 2004 that there was “no credible scientific grounds whatsoever for the Kyoto Protocol.” This year’s hurricane season – or lack of one – is another testament to debunking the theory of human-caused global warming. We all witnessed the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, its victims, the damage and the test of our country’s moral fiber. Katrina was blamed entirely on global warming, and it was thought to be the first of an increase in catastrophic natural disasters. News anchors, politicians and meteorologists promised us another horrific season this year, worse than last year. Well, what hurricanes hitting the coastal states of our country and causing insurmountable damage have you heard about?

I do think global warming is a real problem, something our generation will face in the years to come. However, I do not think it is solely caused by humans or their actions. As history has shown us with previous ice ages, global warming happens. It is inevitable, and there is not anything we can do about it.

Looks like we are just along for the ride.