Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Talkin' About the Weather

California had spring-like weather for most of the winter just ended, now is having what passes for winter weather in these parts so far in the spring. Guess what? Climate is variable, get over it.

There are wet years and dry, warm years and cold, windy years and calm, and that's just within a lifetime. Take a longer view and you find ice ages and warm spells. Go to any national park in the Rockies and listen to their geologists point out the U shaped glacier-carved valleys, so different in appearance from the V shaped river cut valleys.

Earth has had ice ages before and, unless you know something I don't, will likely have them in our future. Earth has had warm eras, much warmer than today, and that too is documented. Best of all, Earth experienced all of this variability without significant human intervention.

Can we humans influence global weather? Maybe, there is no way to be sure. Assuming we are responsible for "global whatever" (warming, change, or cooling) strikes me as hubris.

It's the sort of assumption made by people who spend their lives in large cities. Who therefore have no real sense of how thinly we humans are spread across the face of this globe.

I've cruised across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans going for several days without seeing another ship, not one. Or driven for hours across the middle of the U.S. without seeing more than the occasional farm. Most of this planet is being left alone to do whatever it naturally does, without our help or hindrance.