Perhaps you missed the news, but it snowed (or iced) in July in Yonkers, New York. After a colder than normal winter and a delayed start of summer; it is more than odd to hear of a snow or ice storm in July. Nonetheless, on July 7th and 8th, the snow moving equipment was called out to clear away as much as 6 inches of a July ice storm.
As President Obama continued expanding the discussion on global warming at the G8 meting in Italy, confusing climatic signs leave many wondering about the realities that they are facing. The stone wall of finality has some controversial cracks that leave open a question previous closed. Is global warming anthropogenic (man created) or repeating earth cyclical?
Hard core global warming types argue that we are experiencing extremes as global warming runs its course. The opposition find ground to believe that they cycle of global warming is self-correcting and now beginning it move back. Who’s right? The truth is that there is science on both sides of the debate.
Global warming has been happenings, and this affects the global climate. Greenhouse gases are good for us since it keep us from a freeze and thaw like other non-atmosphere planets, but it out of balance will cause the dual effects of global warming or global cooling. You may recall that concerns over volcanic ash could blot out the sun causing a global night that would freeze us in our beds. This and other doomsday mal-predictions have left a fair amount of skepticism in the radically-based threats.
I guess the summation of these contradictions is that we really don’t know the cause and solution of global warming except by educated guesses. When it starts and when it ends may not be ours predict. As I observe the ones who are supposed to know, I detect a bold front and a nervous uncertainty on both sides of the debate. Everyone wants to be right, or at least to convince everyone that they have the answers. I’m am not so sure.
About the time I think I have resolved the matter, there is a snow storm in July, a blistering cold winter, and reports of global temperature decline. It is frankly not only too big a question for me. I think is is too big a question for any of us though we may postulate with our most learned scientists. Privately, I hope that global warming has reached its azimuth, and the world will rotate back into a cycle that we all hope for. Though I may enjoy the occasional doomsday movie, I do not want to live it.
Predictions often prove to be conjecture and hyperbole, and I for one hope that the global warming fear-mongers are wrong again this time. I also hope that this near miss has taught us a little more about our stewardship of this earth so that we will live a life less wasteful and abusive. Step up to the precipice and looking over the edge may be good medicine for us. It is far too scary to anticipate toppling off the edge and falling to my horrible end.
So, it is my fondest wish that we have a reprieve from the pending judgment of human extinction from all the horrible deaths predicted by those who extrapolate the end of the world from newly-complied data. I also pray that we will learn about the demands of our stewardship in a world that belongs to generations after us.