Global What?

It seems the whole "Inconvenient Truth" crowd, up in arms and becoming more militant by the minute about the issue of Global Warming have a few sticky issues to deal with of late. Just look at the North American Continent. We are under a sustained deep freeze, the likes of which we haven't seen in my lifetime. States and regions rarely seeing freezing temperatures and snow are buried and crops grown in California and Florida have been hit hard by freezing weather. Areas that haven't seen snow in decades are seeing it, in many cases for the first time the inhabitants of the area have seen in their lives. Lake Superior, is iced over as far as the eye can see.

"Before and after" photos instill panic and the frenzy to convince all the glaciers are shrinking the oceans are inundating everything, everywhere, are deceptive in nature and are often deliberately taken during predictable fluctuations. The Earth is a dynamic planet but by cosmic standards, we are relatively static. Our climate has seen dramatic shifts in a cosmic blink of an eye that have resulted in mass extinction, destruction beyond our comprehension and devastation over vast areas and periods long before humans ever graced the planet. On the other hand, if you consider the range of climactic possibilities on a universal scale, our fluctuations are miniscule.

The reality of humans even being able to measure global climate change is dubious at best. Where and how are these measurements being taken? Well the answer will leave most of us doubting the ability to detect anything on a global scale. We know less about our own planet than we do outer space and surrounding planets. We have vast regions of the oceans that have never been explored, measured, mapped or quantified. The most obvious thing to even the casual observer with a speck of intelligence and knowledge is that the oceans have great affect on our day to day climate, yet they are only one part of the equation. Ocean currents are dynamic and the temperature and circulation of the water in the oceans has a greater affect than humans can even comprehend. The variables are so vast and unexplored it is truly foolhearty and arrogant to think we, mere humans, can begin to understand the complexity and dynamic nature of the global climate.

The Sun, 93 Million miles away goes through fluctuations that directly affect our climate...and we can control that influence how? The orbit of the Moon has a dramatic affect on our climate. The tectonic plates shift contstantly, changing the visible and inaccessible landscape constantly. Following the Earthquake that resulted in the devastating psunamis the Earth actually "wobbled" on it's axis. The long-term affects of that event on our climate may never be understood or quantified. The Earth's magnetic poles are shifting and that will have dramatic long term affects, not understood at all, on our climate. Foliage cover of the Earth changes dramatically with the seasons yet we have not even begun to quantify, on a global scale, the potential effects.

Jet streams shift, Ocean currents change, ocean temperatures shift with changes in cloud cover, current changes and moon cycles, volcanoes erupt, continents shift, forest fires burn, earthquakes occur, psunamis result, ice fields are dynamic and constantly shifting, polar ice caps have changed dramatically, ebb and flow, break and reform, meteor strikes can devastate the entire Earth, wind blows, convection sucks and so does the "science" or lack thereof, surrounding the entire "Global Warming" debate, since it started gaining momentum.

Lump together all other natural factors affecting our global climate and you understand that any politician claiming they will do something about Global Warming, is suffering from delusions of grandeur. I challenge any human to specify how humans would be able to effect change to our climate on a global scale when we have a difficult time figuring out how to keep homes and businesses warm and when we still have few ideas how the Earth has evolved since the Dinosaurs were wiped out, by a still unknown force.

To assert that humans can effect global climate change by an act of Congress or by Presidential decree is beyond ludicrous. There just seem to be far too many delusional politicians with too much time on their hands, promoting an agenda they think will influence a fickle, ignorant public into voting them into office so they can fix the planet. It's like the Duluth City Council attempting to change the course of the Iraq war; it's silly, disingenuous, inane, delusional and deceptive.

Take the bait like all the lemmings on the Global Warming, Man be damned, bandwagon and you, along with Al Gore and his minions will be eating crow by the truckload by the end of the decade. Use your noggin and your common sense and you will quickly dispel the utter myth of Man created Global Climate Change and if global climate change is occuring, that we are in any way, able to change the course of our climate.

Figure this one out and send me the solution: Cork the next major volcano eruption and all the cows asses and you will make a bigger impact on CO2 emissions than if you eliminate every man-made source on the planet. Delude no more and go in Peace!

What to Do?

It has been some time since anything truly logical took place in the Council Chambers. We hear things like a resolution opposing the Iraq war, past resolutions dealing with a Syrian Prisoner, the CIA, Secret Service, etc. The question to be asked is: how do these ridiculous resolutions promote productive agenda for Duluth?

If a Councilor wants to send a letter to the President to express his or her opinions on the Iraq war, so be it. On the other hand, this assinine resolution does two things, it represents the views of a few of our Councilors, possibly a majority of Duluth and yet, it does not represent the views of many Duluthians. The resolution has about the same weight to the US Government as a grain of sand has on Park Point. It is embarrassing to witness the spectacle of these little goofballs acting like this resolution has any more weight with President Bush, Congress or the US Military than the ink used to write it. Come on people!

Let's get back to the business of Duluth and stop distracting yourselves with these innane, useless and utterly meaningless debates. If you want to express your opinion, do it on your own time. You have been elected to do the City's business, please get on with it.