Error and Anger Management We Will Be Victorious

Let me start by saying I don’t doubt the existence of global climate change. The only thing that I believe is constant about the climate is change. One walk through a natural history museum, and a 6 year old kid will go on telling stories of saber tooth tigers and woolly mammoths. They will come home excited to tell you that a long time ago, there was a lake that covered most of the state of Utah, and that their house would have been under water.

Now days we hear people screaming about man kind’s terrible impact on the climate. We hear Sheryl Crow suggesting that we should limit toilet paper we use to one square per bathroom visit.  John Travolta wants us to all do our part to limit carbon emissions while he’s flying his 707 around the world. Wow, if only our lives were as important as Mr. Travolta’s.

If you question Anthropomorphic Climate Change (man made climate change), you get labeled as, “one of THOSE people.”  Obviously you like to kill baby pandas and serve them to old oil company executives.  Well I do question is man’s responsibility for climate change for one reason…it’s been happening long before man walked the earth.

One of my favorite disconnects comes when I point out to “Believers” that in the 70’s the major environmental protests were over global cooling.  In fact the organizers of the first Earth-day, April 22, 1970 had as their goal to make the public aware of the concern of global cooling.  In 1975, Newsweek ran an article explaining the dangers of global cooling.  Scientists even suggested “melting the polar ice cap,” and “covering it with soot,” as an effort to curb the disaster of global cooling.

Well now of course the cause du’jour is global warming.   So, if  you bring these up the silly sounding ideas of global cooling…you have to ask yourself, how could scientists get it so WRONG?  The answer is…Climate Change.  See Climate Change covers global cooling AND global warming…so now with a simple trick of language, scientists can’t get it wrong any more.  Neat trick, really it is.  Wish I could have somehow used it in high school algebra.

I find it interesting that meteorologists who’s job it is to predict weather patterns a mere week in advance get it wrong so often.  Yet somehow we expect the same scientific crowd to be correct when predicting weather patterns 10,15 or even 20 years in the future.  The fact is, we don’t know exactly what’s going on.

A major piece of evidence in the case of rapid climate change is the disappearance of polar ice caps.  This of course prompted NASA scientists to investigate further.  Their findings are interesting ones, particularly that the melting polar ice caps may have less to do with climate change, than they have to do with ocean currents changing over time.  Meanwhile, other scientists are saying that it appears as if Antarctica (you know the continent that we always hear is melting) may in fact be growing. Imagine that, scientists who were all sure that your SUV had melted the ice caps, were wrong.

Don’t tell me that man made climate change is, “Settled Science.”  That is simply not true.  We don’t know for sure what is going on.  The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine came out with a study in 2007 that seriously brought in to question Man’s role in climate change.  Scientists all over the world have come out publicly to applaud this study.

Let’s imagine one other possible source for climate change.  Why don’t we consider the sun’s roll in global climate change, is there a correlation?  NASA is looking at this very possibility.  Later this month (October 09) NASA is launching the Glory Satellite designed to study the connection between solar activity and climate change.  NASA already believes that low solar activity was the cause of the little ice age in between 1645 and 1715.

Now I don’t advocate trashing the Earth.  I believe we should take care of our home.  Do what we can to keep it clean.  I also believe that the earth has resources for us to use, responsibly.  If we find a better, cleaner way of generating energy, I’m all for it!  If somehow we develop technology that is more than simply a “feel good solution,” let’s implement it.

What I’m against is destroying our economy, our country and our way of life for something that no one is sure even exists.  I propose we consider doing the following:

1. Let’s continue to use the natural resources at our disposal.

We have oil and coal that we can use, at this time we need it.  It is in fact what our economy runs on.  Let’s focus on pulling out some of the resources that we have in our country so we don’t have to depend on foreign sources.

2. Let’s continue to make look for better, alternative energy sources

Currently the alternative energy sources that are available don’t work all that well.  Solar energy simply isn’t efficient enough to effectively power the country.  The one alternative source of energy (quite clean I might add) everyone is afraid of is Nuclear power.  It’s clean, it’s reliable, and we know how to make it work.  The French even figured this one out…THE FRENCH!

3. Stay away from symbolic legislation.

Cap and trade, the Kyoto treaty, are nothing more than feel good measures that will destroy our economy.   Cap and Trade really does nothing more than limit jobs in the US, and move those jobs else where.  Do we really believe that companies are going to stand idly by and pay a tax on their carbon emission, or are they simply going to move their jobs out side the reach of the federal government?  So Cap and Trade becomes a bill that doesn’t help the environment, just gives another obstacle for our economy to fail.

4. Let’s find out what the real problem is…

We need to figure this whole thing out.  Let’s find out if Anthropomorphic Climate change REALLY is a problem or not!  I’m not saying that man has had nothing to do with changes in the environment, I’m simply saying we that don’t know for sure.  I reject the notion that we should implement any radical solutions, just in case there may be a problem.  Imagine if we make the wrong move.  Imagine if our “solutions” end up doing more harm than good.   Remember, it was just 30 years ago when we were convinced that we had caused an Ice age.

So let’s take care of our Earth.  As of right now, it’s all we’ve got, but let’s take care of the Earth with our heads.  Let’s make moves that make sense instead of knee jerk reactions that we may regret later.   After all no one wants to be the guy that suggested we needed to melt the polar ice caps.