A few days ago, I was watching a weekend news show featuring a 28-year-old who called herself a “senior climatologist”. She was getting all worked up and fussing at all the non-believers for not protesting in the street and demanding that we do something about climate change before it’s too late. She blamed the west coast forest fires, the Pennsylvania floods, the hurricanes, the heat dome, the storms, and the drought and tornadoes on all of us who have had a few questions about the whole idea of climate change. She said that it’s all happening because the Earth’s temperature has gone up two degrees since 1875. She said we have turned Earth into a boiling planet. That sounded pretty bad. I felt like I needed to call Al Gore or John Kerry immediately and apologize. But back to Miss Climatologist; she went on to say that before the industrial age, the planet was 10 degrees colder, and each decade since then has risen two degrees. So . . . the math wasn't really working out, but that started me thinking how much I loved my earmuffs during the winter of my first grade in school. I wanted to wear them all day, but my very wonderful teacher, Mrs. Fountain, explained that if she let me wear mine then she would have to let everybody in first grade wear their's and all the first graders would be wearing their earmuffs all day in class. So I understood. I had to learn how to adapt my life style. And so, the weather got a little warmer, and by 3rd grade I didn’t even need earmuffs. They say climate change has warmed the oceans making hurricanes more powerful and destructive than ever before. But if damage estimates and insurance claims are indicators of the strength of storms , then maybe inflation and rising consumer prices are more of the problem than climate change. Meanwhile, folks continue to build their new beach house right where the old one got blown down. Forest fires in the West wreak more havoc and disaster every year. Is all of that climate change or does it have something to do with the fact that more and more people are moving into the woods and building more and more expensive homes in the trendy parts of California, Idaho, Colorado and Utah? Is anybody doing anything about the lack of forest management? The droughts in some parts of the country have lasted for decades, but is climate change the main problem? Each year, thousands of acres of arid desert in various states suck up billions of gallons of water courtesy of concrete canals running hundreds of miles from the Colorado River to huge desert farming operations. Some of the fastest growing cities in the country are in these same states, and those folks are living off of that same water imported from the Rocky Mountains and other distant major rivers. Population density, not climate change may be the real problem there as well. A lot of it is just common sense. Mrs. Fountain would know what to do, and she wasn't even a climatologist.
Don’t get me wrong. The climate is changing. It always has. I just don’t think it’s all gonna come to a crashing end next Thursday. I understand the urgency and the fear that some zealots think must be injected into the discussion, but so far that's not working. Our job is to understand the problem and then rationally and realistically plan how to deal with it. The U.S. is not the major offender of carbon emissions or climate change. Our share is only 28 %, and we are about to completely abandon our energy infrastructure while the rest of the world seems largely unconcerned with their role or responsibility. In truth, there is no realistic plan on the part of the administration of the United States to seriously put together the long-term solution. The Biden administration has announced a lengthy list of "green energy" proposals that are unproven and do little more than create headlines for political gain. Even though massive subsidies, credits and rebates have been proposed to encourage the purchase of electric cars, only 1% of the fleet of American automobiles are electric. Unless the “adults in the room” of this administration can come up with a comprehensive, long-term plan for a serious transition to renewable energy, using all of our available energy sources to get there, this economy and this country will be left alone to bear the crippling defeat of a poorly conceived idea. It is clear to see that the biggest threat we have regarding the climate is not carbon emissions, but rather it is a half-baked, politically-inspired, and carelessly presented attempt to sell a corrupt crusade and a cause who time has not yet come.
