Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Hey Baby, It's Cold Outside.

Brace yourselves boys and girls. It's going to get very cold. In fact, our Anglo-cousins are suffering from an unprecedented snowfall and cold weather snap. Even the Orient is getting chilled to the bone.

I'd imagine some of our frostbitten friends would welcome a little global warming at the moment. Frankly, I'd rather perish with a nice tan, riding some super-wave induced by a melted glacier, than having lost all of my extremities to frostbite. But that's just the werewolf in me.

Three decades ago, leading scientists fretted about the Earth's pending doom from global cooling. As temperatures rose, the last decade saw the reverse fears of gloom and doom sourced from global warming. Damn you nature! Why won't you cooperate with Al Gore? Ironically, both of these apocalyptic trends were attributed to the industry and growth of mankind. Heaven forbid there be a force on this earth that acts independent of man. We always have to be at the center of attention, don't we?

The new lingo is "climate change." Broad enough to be applied to the last two concepts without having to explain which one it is, while simultaneously making "change" a bad thing. Weren't we all about, "change" in 2008? The werewolf is confused, too.

Here's the lesson. Some winters are colder, some summers are warmer. Have a fur coat and bathing suit handy, but not everything that happens is the fault of man, nor can man do much to change the outcome, other than adapting. Hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and epidemics all have happened before we industrialized and could apply our self-loathing on to a global-platform, and will continue to happen despite our carbon foot, or if we buy organic or not.

Let's worry about the things we can control and actually mean something in peoples lives. To start with let's pursue sound fiscal policies, macro-economic sanity, combating terror and those who harbor it, justice, tearing down trade barriers, respecting peoples freedoms, empowerment, and constructive applications of energy technologies. Imagined nightmares of a rebellious earth and frayed environment keep our eyes off the ball, when the solution is more simple. Diversify your wardrobe.

In the meantime, bust out the fur-coat. It's going to get cold.

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