Postings from much of August seem to have vanished from Vermont Mornings, and we have no idea why. Requests to people who have been charged with tending to these matters go unanswered, (and they have a tendency to lie or blame others when asked, so f*ck it) so as soon as we can get a new webmaster, we will move on.
In the meantime, I DO remember that I posted this quote following the devastation that much of Vermont experienced following last Sunday’s assault by Hurricane Irene: (it’s from a 1981 book called ‘Letters From the Country’ by the writer Carol Bly. If you are unfamiliar with My Lai, just click on the words)
“Rural people tend to think history takes place at My Lai, not here. They need to be reminded that genuine local history took place a decade and a half ago in the Utah countryside when Lewis Strauss’s Atomic Energy Commission assured the people they had nothing to fear from underground testing. And genuine local history is taking place in Utah now. People are counting their leukemia cases. The old relaxing normalcy-loving slogan, “Oh, well – give him enough time – he’ll hang himself!” won’t do. It isn’t itself that the AEC hanged.
It is so odd for us Minnesotans to be thinking of crisis, learning to gear up to it, when finally summer has come. Minnesota is beautiful. Skippers’ wrists rest on small tillers on our thousands of lakes. Who wants to be paranoid? Surely Rachel Carlson was just given to exaggeration.”
‘Where are we headed?’ I often ask, ‘and what’s with this handbasket?’ If a Category 1 hurricane can do billions of dollars in damage in such a short period of time, what’s ahead? Can ANYONE still deny climate change? Will attitudes change when Florida runs out of water, when Oklahoma’s streak of 100+ degree days extends deep into September? Doubtful.
Sorry for the rant, go back to your PDA’s, plasma screens and shopping excursions. Surely Rachel Carlson was just another media creation.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Weatherman // Sep 5, 2011 at 10:52 am
‘Scuse me!
You may rant, you may rail like King Lear against the elements, but you can rest assured that the heat in OK, the drought in TX, and the floods in VT are NOT part of global warming – no way, no how, not even close!
There have been countless scientific articles that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals, pointing out the strong lack of connection with any number of weather events and climate change.
The Texas drought is equivalent to those in the 1910s and 1950s. The heat in OK is setting records at asphalt-surrounded thermometers. And our floods were still less than those of 1927 on a state-wide basis.
As far as Irene goes – not even close in adjusted losses for hurricanes/tropical storms in New England’s part – the Hurricane of 1938 being tops with est $48B, compared to Irene’s $4.7B.
There WILL be a more devastating hurricane in the northeast than Irene. I don’t know when, but the ocean patterns have shifted to favor more hurricanes along the East Coast over the next two to three decades.
Are humans screwing up the planet – as much as ever (looking at the vista of Sheffield, oh, so attractive with the 400+ foot wind towers to support our greed for energy). But humans causing climate change – I say NO, and as the temperatures fall over the next 20 to 30 years, I won’t be telling you I told you so – the fear-mongers will have turned it around by then to say they knew it all along!
Rant volley, back to you!
2 admin // Sep 5, 2011 at 6:54 pm
I’ll respectfully disagree. I would like to think that a deranged species such as ours is too insignificant to actually effect climate change, but I side with the majority on this.
The hurricanes and droughts are symptomatic, I would agree that they are not indicative of climate change. But what about the retreat of the glaciers, the melting ice caps?
To me, the wind towers look like…the future.
And,,,ultimately, ANYTHING that gets us to stop polluting the atmosphere, ground, water, etc. gets my support.
My cinco centavos.
3 Weatherman // Sep 10, 2011 at 8:37 am
Hmmm, Saturday morning rant….I’m not sure how this will go, so if I do get out of control, it has to do with so many things I cannot control or change.
I certainly respect your opinion, and you can respectfully disagree.
But you can’t change physics. And you can’t change science. Even the most staunch climate scientist will readily admit that the process of science, the progress of science, lies in skepticism and doubt. So here are facts – agreed upon and published widely in scientific journals:
- Since 1998, the global temperature has fallen 0.8 degrees C, according to the HadCRU data set (generally regarded as the standard)
- The Sun has a more significant effect on climate than accounted for in global climate models – thanks to a study published in the highly regarded, peer-reviewed publication Nature. There is still much to understand, but it is not a minor adjustment, as it has long been known there is a correlation between the Sun and climate, just not a mechanism until now.
-The first Law of Thermodynamic states that energy can neither be created or destroyed. Applying this to thermal energy, adding CO2 to the atmosphere cannot, by itself, add energy to the system. There is a finite amount. Thus any significant change in thermal energy is from input, and in our climate system, that input is the Sun.
Of course, the other thing science demands, is proof. So again, I fully expect that the net cooling over the next 20 to 30 years will require interesting explanations and reasonings that you are not likely to find in the religion of “global warming”.
As far as pollution goes….to lessen atmospheric pollution in favor of sight pollution is not a solution. They did this (changing one form of pollution for another) with coal stacks in the 1960s and 70s; higher stacks, less visible pollution, only to create a disaster with acid rain.
Since I spent a great deal of time in the woods, and because they are not making more hills, mountains, and forests, I cannot justify destroying what we have for a form of energy that ONLY is viable because of tax incentives. Put the same dollars, and the same research into solar, and you can use every roof out there to make energy. I’d rather use candles than look at those damn towers!
And still, the REAL bottom line is not about what form of energy, or what the resulting pollution is. There are too many people on the planet to sustain the planet as we know it. You can’t add more people and reduce damage to the environment. The resolution to that issue is either VERY long in achieving, or VERY ugly.
So, enjoy the weekend – lots of sun and cool weather, giving us a hint of fall….
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