Spiritual Blogs

Let's set a few things straight right from the beginning. No one - and I said "no one" has a stance of "pro pollution". This is a made-up battle the military and cooperate strategists use to win the 'hearts-and-minds' of the public. Don't be an easy mark. Try if you will to side-step your passion - because it may be built upon a fabricated foundation.

Remember just a few short years ago: "You're either with me, or you're with the terrorists". (George Bush) ---- "The debate is over; the facts are in. You're either with me, or you're with the polluters." (Al Gore)

Yes, I understand corporations (foreign and domestic) put money before people; but that's not pro pollution - that's just flat-out reckless GREED. Instead of falling into the trap of division, we would be far better off preparing for the changes ahead. No doubt it is hard for most humans to realize - "Sometimes - we just don't have control. But we do have choice - let's hope we can get to a united one for all our sake." Statements such as "you're either with me, or you're against me" will never ever ever work.

 NASA climatologist Bill Patzert says: "We've always had extreme weather. US history is written in great natural calamities -- tornadoes, hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, floods. Currently the global is warming, but it would be irresponsible to say that this heat wave and all these broken records are due to global warming from human causes. It's just not that simple."

John Christy, a scientist from the University of Alabama in Huntsville agrees: "Heat waves are a natural part of the climate system, and while the recent heat wave was remarkable, it was not as intense as others in the past."

  Jake Crouch, a climate scientist from the NOAA National Climatic Data Center. "Last year was the fourth warmest winter since 1895. And it was dry, with a deficit of snowfall in many places. During most of this past winter and spring, a positive North Atlantic Oscillation pressure pattern kept the jet stream further north and the US warmer and drier than normal."

Patzert, Christy, and Crouch offer a few examples of past heat waves and droughts. The central US suffered several heat waves in the 1930s -- the dust bowl years -- when more statewide, all-time record high temperatures were set than in any other decade. And the western US experienced decades-long droughts in the 12th century. So dry were mountain areas that we can still see near-hundred-year-old trees standing upright in the bottom of alpine lakes where they grew on dry ground 900 years ago. This shows that in the 12th century it was so dry and hot that the lakes dried up and allowed trees to grow over a significant period before moisture finally returned.

All agree the heat waves and hot weather of the summer 2012 might be just that -- weather. They also both believe that improvement is needed in models indicating effects of human, solar, cosmic rays, and other factors have on weather and climate.