by Michael Smith
According to reports the year 2008 is turning out to be the coolest year for at least a decade or more, and that on a glob a scale.
Nevertheless, the run-of-the-mill, go-with-the-flow, climate scientists claim that this is in no way an indication that “global warming” has slowed. It is just a fluke year, they say. I guess in the same way as the summer of 2007 which, in the UK, was one of the wettest in decades, while we had been told, the year before only that we should be expecting severe droughts for the next years and decades to come. Oh dear!
This is despite the findings by climatologists at an Australian university that indicate that “global warming” has plateaued out about 6 to 7 years ago and that the global temperatures have not risen, not even by the smallest of a fraction, ever since. Even the IPCC of the United Nations had to admit, more or less in secrecy though, that those finding from Australia are, indeed, correct.
Someone, please, please tell us what is behind the “global warming” agenda. Or should we rather ask as to who is behind it?
Yes, we have been and are going through a cyclic climate change but this is more likely than not one of the cycles the Earth goes through every thousand or so years..
This does not mean that we do NOT have to do all those things in order top reduce the pollution, to reduce waste, to reduce, reuse, re-purpose and recycle rather than filling up holes in the ground, often leading to further pollution of the environment.
We also must – and that is all of us in every country of the developed world for starters – live a much simpler lifestyle once again. We must get away from all that air travel on vacation, for instance, from which you then need a vacation to recover from the rigors of the travel and all that. But, then my readers will by now know that I am somewhat of an advocate of staycations rather.
While such a simpler lifestyle does not, necessarily, mean being a Luddite and refusing all things modern or such like, or to live like the Amish – not that there is something wrong with horse and buggy, rather the opposite. But we must try to make do with less and get away from the “I wan, I want, I want” attitude and also we must insist that products are repairable rather than throwaway.
A good and perfect example here is computer printers.. I personally have had the experience with an Epson ink jet printer that while less than a year old had done more than it alloted amount of pages (for some reason they are only laid out for a certain number of x-thousand pages and that's it) and its waste ink reservoir had become full. I contacted the company and was told that it would cost about £70 for a new waste ink reservoir and another £75 to fit it. Upon getting this quote I mentioned that the printer was new only £30 and that I could buy more that 4 printers for that amount they wanted to repair it and the gentleman on the other end then said “oh, well, I suggest you buy a new printer then.” Is it not silly when it is more expensive for the spares and the repair than buying new? I think it is. But I digressed somewhat.
The “go-with-the-flow” climatologists are trying to tell us that 2008 being the coolest in a decade or more is but a fluke. Well, I guess we shall see. It will not be if the other groups of scientists that no one wants to hear from, however, are correct. For we are then, in due course, headed for a cooling period, which is also being predicted by the Old Farmer's Almanac. While I know that some will say that the Old Farmer's Almanac is not science the fact is also that many of its predictions, the majority, so I understand, have, over the years, come true.
As I said before, it does not matter as to whether or not the warming is slowing or has stopped and is going into a cooling; the arctic ice will still, I should think, continue to melt for some time as it is now warmer, in general, than it was before and pollution has a great deal to do with that, we still have to learn to live with “climate change” and especially so if it is going to go the other way as well. We also must to increase our efforts to get away from polluting fuels, such as coal and oil, for or electricity, for instance and we must, and I am going to say that again, reduce, reuse, re-purpose and recycle our waste and get away from being a throwaway society.
As to generating of electricity we must get away from non-renewable fossil fuels and go for fuels that are renewable, but I am also not advocating the use of bio-fuels; far the opposite. As regards to transportation the ICE (internal combustion engine) has no future unless it is fueled by what it was originally intended to be run on, namely methane gas.
Other forms of transportation, especially when it comes to short distances, for instance, should be considered. There is no need to get the car out just to go down the road to get the newspaper and a pint of milk or for the kids to go to school. Cycling or walking will do nicely there.
But, that theoretically, is another matter and subject.
Whether or not the planet is cooling down again and whether or not climate change is bought about by human activities, e.g. the motor vehicles and all that – this still must mean that the Vikings were releasing lots of CO2 into the air as well, as in their time there too was a very warm period which was followed by a mini ice age, we must reduce our negative impact on the environment. We must stop living as if tomorrow did not matter. It does. It does for us and for our children and their children and the rest of the entire Earth.
We must continue with our struggle to reduce, reuse, re-purpose and recycle regardless of what is happening and we should have started a long, long time ago. Problem is that everyone seems to have been thinking that everything will just be OK for ever, regardless of what we do. Oil is running out and we should have never used it for what we have been using it, namely burning it in cars and furnaces. But, alas, it has happened and we are reaping the harvest now.
Food for thought!
© M Smith (Veshengro), December 2008
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2008 – the coolest year in decades
