Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We are fully into the season where those that debunk any and all global warming theories cry, “Al Gore, where are you?” Record low temperatures or massive blizzards bring out the nay-sayers every winter claiming proof positive that global warming is a hoax.

Allow me a moment to digress and refresh the memories of these ill-informed folks: global warming does not necessarily coincide with higher temperatures. Rather, the term is used to illustrate a shift in weather patterns brought on by a higher than normal temperature of our planet. The severity of weather patterns is the hallmark of this condition, not the actual outside temperature. As such, record highs are also recorded, but we don’t hear Al Gore’s name invoked when talking about them, do we?

OK, back to the matter at hand. Nature has thrown much at the world over the past year: earthquakes, blizzards, floods, volcanoes, record setting hot and cold spells, you name it. For an in-depth look at some of these, drop by this Yahoo News link. I realize, by the way, that earthquakes and eruptions are not necessarily tied to the global warming scenario, but they have nevertheless added to the meteorological magnitudes reached over the past twelve months.

I do not claim to have an answer that would solve our global warming concerns save those that have already been proposed. But the fact that many still refuse to accept the premise as viable is beyond me. Most are highly educated people that must be placing a higher priority on politics and cash flow than the general well-being of our planet. This is nothing new, you know. We generally refer to such behavior as “kicking the can down the road”. After all, today’s officials will be long gone before the chickens come home to roost in measurable numbers, so why rock the boat? Let someone else handle it. We’ve seen similar mentalities in recent financial fiascos. Others argue that climate change is nothing new and they’re absolutely correct. I doubt, however, that mankind would take kindly to a new ice age or eternal tropical storms.

So, to you believers out there: don’t let anyone get away with the “where’s AL Gore now that we’re freezing to death?” ploy. It is an argument firmly rooted in ignorance and deserves a rebuttal at the earliest opportunity. Although I doubt a head-in-the-sand denier would be dropping by for a dose of my editorial elixir, just in case one stumbles in: come on...you know that, on some level, society’s way of life is screwing up the ecological balance that we depend upon for life, comfort, and sustainability. At least own up to the fact regardless of any changes you may make in your day to day lifestyle.

They say that admitting the problem is the biggest step to solving it. Let’s all hope that society can look itself in the mirror, accept the fact of a warmer globe, and get to the business of making our carbon footprints a bit smaller. And soon.