Common Sense For New Hampshire

Why I’m not losing sleep over the “threat” of Global Warming:

1)  It’s impossible to measure the temperature of the earth with the tools currently available.  The place is just too vast and complex.  We would need to have a billion weather stations spread out over every acre of land and at every depth of every spot in the ocean to get any kind of meaningful number.  The crude methods we are currently using can’t possibly pick up a change of a degree or two in the overall temperature of the planet.  (You know scientists are always completely sure of the infallibility of their methods, and what the results of their observations and experiments mean, until other scientists come along and prove them wrong.  Even then, many won’t change their minds.  So just because a scientist says something, it doesn’t mean it’s true.)  Besides, even using their numbers, the temperature hasn’t risen in 17 years.

2)  Even if the temperature is rising, it’s much more likely to be a result of changes in the sun’s activity or other natural causes.  The earth has seen huge swings in its overall temperature for billions of years.  It’s been much hotter than it is today and much colder.  How can we think that whatever temperature it was 50 years ago was the exact right temperature and also think that we can somehow lock it in at that temperature?  It’s a fool’s errand and a very expensive one.  It’s bad enough that they’re, among other things, taking away our light bulbs and forcing us to buy appliances that don’t work as well as the old ones, but they are making life harder for the billion or so people that are living at the margins of survival by discouraging economic growth in undeveloped and underdeveloped regions of the world.

3)  Even if the earth’s temperature is rising, and even if the rise is a result of human activity, is that such a terrible thing?  As I write this, it’s 6 degrees outside.  What about the people who have to be outside in this?  What about the homeless?  Many, many more people freeze to death than die from excessive heat.  Plus, if the earth was warmer, more land would be available for growing crops.  We could alleviate a lot of hunger.  And even if the sea levels were to rise, it would be far cheaper to deal with it with sea walls in some areas and strategic retreats in other areas than by trying to change the temperature of the entire planet.

4)  The next ice age will be coming in the next 20,000 years or so.  It’s inevitable.  So if the earth happens to be heating up right now, that’s probably a good thing.  Maybe we can delay that ice age a little bit.  You know being under a glacier can ruin your whole day.

.