Griz Bear Comments: : Staying off the global-warming bandwagon
Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/gentry/Opinion/2439/
If we are really experiencing global warming, why should I have to be afraid to plant flowers in May ?
Mrs. Griz has wanted me to plant flowers in the yard for some time now and I have been remiss about it. I felt a bit guilty about not getting it done when she asked but was afterward happy I didnít jump on the band wagon too soon and have my work be all for naught because of the late freezes in April.
Now that itís May, I suggested last weekend as a possibility. Certainly May is late enough not to have to worry about a freeze killing off the flowers. Well, the forecast for late Saturday night / early Sunday morning made me decide to hold off just a little bit longer. It included the possibility of another freeze; and if weather to the northwest was any indication that I should take the freeze threat seriously, we received reports of snow back in northern and western Kansas.
Is this global warming ? I keep hearing how temperatures are rising and all the ice caps may melt and flood coastal areas. But I remember much warmer springs and summers when I was young and living in Missouri. But here, summer has been mild ó at least compared to the summers I am used to ó and we have had late freezes two years in a row. In fact, winter and spring seemed a bit colder this year than last.
Perhaps I shouldnít be such a skeptic about global warming. Perhaps I should accept it as scientific fact, like so many others have done. But Iím not so quick to jump on the band wagons of popular opinion and join the parade.
You see, even at the young age of 53, Iíve seen such band wagons before. Everyone was convinced, science and research proved it, and a message or cause was proclaimed as gospel truth. Then, 10, 20 or 30 years later, we learned a mistake had been made, the research was incomplete, and what once absolute truth wasnít so true after all.
The band wagon of the evolutionary theory has rolled along for quite some time now, started by a single man and his ideas more than 150 years ago. Everyone jumped on, but the wheels have now fallen off and it appears to be sliding downhill and back into the primordial slime from which it emerged. People would be jumping off right and left except they donít like the alternative theory of a supreme being and moral responsibility.
If the philosophy of the 1950 s and early 1960 s were true, weíd be living in a modern utopia now with all our problems solved by scientific advances, but that was before leaders were assassinated and our young men were dying in southeast Asia in a war we never quite understood.
Some thought the hippie movement of the ë 60 s and ë 70 s offered an answer, but it didnít ó why is so much music of that era coming back ?
Of course, one could go on and on talking about the band wagons upon which large groups of society have ridden for a time ó until they got old and some new wagon passed, often going in the opposite direction.
If I were to quit eating all the foods that have been declared, at some time or another, bad for me, and if I quit doing all the activities that, at some time or another, were pronounced dangerous or harmful to my health, there would be nothing left for me to do but sit in front of my computer, write articles and become obese from eating organic carrot sticks ó oh, yes, that might be harmful too, and my skin would turn orange !
So back to global warming, is it true ? To be honest with you, I donít know but I am skeptical. I am for conserving energy, finding alternative energy sources and not burning up half the states of Wyoming and West Virginia to generate more and more power, but are we causing global warming by doing so ? Iím not so sure.
Have you ever looked back at photographs taken a century or more ago of the skyline of many modern cities during winter months ? The sky was black with smoke from coal and wood-burning furnaces in every home and building. Weíve come a long way at efficiently burning fossil fuels since then.
We could quit driving cars and trucks and go back to the horse and buggy days to save on burning gasoline and diesel fuel. Would that prevent global warming ? Horses and even people produce greenhouse gases, and who wants to go back to having horses tethered up and down Main Street ? How would we deal with those emissions ? The state of Oklahoma is putting up a big enough fuss over chicken litter. What would those folks say if we start spreading abundant amounts of horse litter on our fields and pastures ?
Is all our fuel consumption causing global warming ? I donít know that either. One can read of both extreme heat and extreme cold in years before the automobile and industrialization, often occurring in cycles. So, are we in a cycle of above-normal temperatures or are we causing above-normal temperatures ? Considering the late freezes this year and the oftenwarmer temperatures recorded 100 years ago in northwest Arkansas, are we beginning to cool off ?
If I were to jump on the globalwarming band wagon today, might I have to switch wagons in a few years and get on the global-cooling one because weíre not producing enough greenhouse gasses to keep things warm ? Itís hard to say.
Would it be all bad if things were warming up ? I, for one, find cold weather less and less enjoyable as I grow older. Sure, places like New Orleans and Manhattan might go under the sea; but think about those poor folks in North Dakota and northern Minnesota who, for centuries, have been shortchanged on summer. Maybe global warming would be good for them.
And what about my wifeís flowers ? Wouldnít global warming be good for planting spring flowers in spring ? Which leads me back to my initial question: If we are really experiencing global warming, why should I have to be afraid to plant flowers in May ?