For those who can't stand reading the article (although many thanks,
@MoDc, for posting it), the premise is that European colonization of North and South America caused the Little Ice Age, a time of generally lower temperatures from about the 16th to the 19th centuries.
The first question that comes to my mind is, what caused the Medieval Warm Period that directly preceded the little ice age? What caused the Roman Warm Period a few hundred years before that?
Science has already come up with some reasonable theories on the causes of all these temperature fluctuations. Reasons like slight changes in the earth's orbital cycle, solar activity, geothermal and volcanic activity, and yes, human activity, but the human activity that is blamed is always connected to deforestation, and that is simply not the issue here, as
the earth is greener than it ever has been. A massive global reforestation has taken place in the last 20 years, with China and India taking the lead.
There is no reforestation problem.
Until science proves what caused ancient episodes of climate change, and what's causing present, mild variations in our temperature, I am skeptical of any theory that blames our use of plastics or fossil fuels for changes in the earth's temperature, and of any plan that suggests we can adjust the temperature of the earth like a thermostat.