Keeping the 'big issue' trend alive I go after Global Warming

Here we are in late March and outside my window snow is drifting down to lay in heavy piles.

A week ago I heard the local meteorologist describe the conditions outside as an “unrelenting winter.”

Even the groundhog went along with it and predicted six extra weeks of cold and white.

While the words “global warming” are on the lips of every politician and half of all environmental scientists, why is it that it’s taking so long here?

After a recent column I wrote espousing the tentative nature of arguments for and against gun control, I received a letter which asked about my take on other big issues such as global warming and ethanol.

I’ll leave ethanol for another time, as global warming is something that is on my mind right now in light of the cooling I continue to see outside.

That having been said, I don’t think that any snowstorm or hard winter is evidence which contradicts global warming theories.

Anecdotal evidence about how hard a winter has been is a local focus, while global warming is on a planet wide scale.

I’ve reviewed a lot of published work on the warming of the globe, but I have yet to find anything that has convinced me that the world is in a crisis.

About four years ago while I was studying at the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis I took a course in geology to satisfy a science requirement.

The professor was a wise old man with a thick Indian accent and if you could learn to hear what he was saying he was a wellspring of information.

What it boils down to, in the end, is learning to think on a geological time scale.

First and foremost your have to understand that the earth is about 4.6 billion years old. I don’t have to tell you that that’s a lot. Now, life on earth didn’t start until circa 3.5 or 2.8 billion years ago.

Our early human ancestor’s Homo Erectus don’t show up on the timeline until 1.6 million years ago.

To put all of this in perspective, if the timeline of earth were the Empire State Building, human development and civilization would be a postage stamp at the top of the spire.

So that’s a lot of time and changes to this big ball of rock to make it to the point that we are at today. In all of that time two simple things have been happening.

The climate has been changing all the time. It periodically goes up and then back down. The reasons for this are subtle and complex, and best left to scientists with a solid background in ancient egyptian algebra.

The second thing that has been happening is that species have evolved to survive in one kind of world, only to have it change around them. They either die out or adapt to the new conditions.

Climate change obviously plays a large part in the roll of species survival. One of the competing theories for the great mystery of what killed all the dinosaurs is that massive climate change (cooling in this case) made the earth uninhabitable to giant lizards.

What I’m trying to say is that I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that the climate of the earth is changing. There is good evidence to suggest that the earth is in the midst of a warming period.

I am much more skeptical of the connection drawn between the actions of mankind and global climate change.

Yes, the earth is warming, is that so bad?

There are two things that might happen. First, the trend reverses and scientists are suddenly scrambling for preventative measures to prevent global cooling. Second, it continues and there is a massive species die-off which wipes out all or most of the human race.

You’ll notice that even the second option didn’t involve the destruction of the planet. That’s because earth is more resilient than we sometimes give her credit for.

Whatever happens to us as a species, the world will go on turning until cockroaches achieve sentience, at which point global climate change will be debated by the new insect lords of earth.

More likely, a lot of people will someday die many will migrate toward the poles, Florida and Arizona will no longer be choice retirement destinations and the Canadian economy will boom.

There are a lot, possibly too many, people out there who want to tell you that “green” living is the way to save the planet.

If we only drove 20 fewer miles per day or washed our clothes with chlorine free detergent or bought only organic food then the warming trend is supposed to magically reverse itself.

Now, some of the “green” initiatives may have value, but I don’t think that they’re about to solve global warming one SUV at a time.

Burning less fossil fuels for example makes perfect sense, the pollutants that are put out by cars impact the environment in ways that can be directly seen. How many people remember what a fiasco leaded gas cause years ago?

Things like using less water or gas or almost anything are not only good for the environment, but for our wallets. Who doesn’t want to see a heating bill that is $30 to $40 less?

Global warming may be real, but it is far from the “crisis” that some would make it out to be.

I would put it about on par with the “crisis” that was the bird flu or west nile epidemics that keeps failing to materialize. Yes, it might kill you, but its more likely that you’ll be really worried about a slight cough until it goes away in a few days.