Global Warming....really?

I guess you cannot have a Blog without talking about global warming, it certainly is a popular subject these days (excuse me, I need to turn the heater up...we are going through a record cold spell here on the Central Coast of California). And as you can see this Nuclear Sub sure wishes it could get through this darn ice.

O.K. where was I...

My son is frustrated because even with my physics and engineering background, I am skeptical about global warming. Not skeptical about the planet warming (after all we do have thermometers), but skeptical that it is "man-made". But how can you not believe in global warming? The Academy Awards this past weekend gave "Fat Albert" Gore an Oscar for his so- called documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth", so it must be a real phenomenon...right? I thought it was hilarious that they announced the Oscars had gone "green", as all the stars arrived in their 5 mpg stretch limos and will probably fly home in their private jets.

Anyway back to the serious subject of global warming...

Here are some observations:

1/ The earth warmed by 0.7 degrees C (1.2 degrees F) during the 20th century.
2/ CO2 levels have risen the past century (although there have been warming periods in the past when CO2 levels went down...but let's forget that for now).

3/ Glaciers are melting, the Arctic ice pack is getting smaller. The ice pack around Greenland is getting smaller. The ice thickness in the middle of Greenland is getting thicker...hmm...we had better come back to that also.

4/ Polar bears are threatening to go on strike without icebergs to ride on, and I had a bee infestation in my vineyard last year.

5/ California has had one of the coldest spells in history during January 2007 and lost $10 billion in crops (obviously that's not "warming"...but the experts call it "climate change", and is the result of global warming..hmm).

6/ Fisherman on the west coast of Iceland this year have had difficulty getting out to sea because of freezing temperatures causing large ice flows. But the experts call this a "climactic aberration" - these guys are good, an answer for everything.

7/ Antarctica in 2007 is also not following the "computer models"...some of the ice flows are getting thicker, but that cannot be, the computers must be right....right?

8/ There have been many warming/cooling periods during the past centuries, and they have been acurately recorded during the past 500 years or so, long before the "industrial revolution". Why do the "experts" skip over that history?

Do you see where I am going with this? I don't know...and I wonder if the "experts" really do. Over 2000 scientists have come to a "consensus" that global warming is serious and it is caused by man. Many of these scientists rely on financial grants for continuing research. There are hundreds of thousands of other scientists and engineers in the world. I wonder what their opinions are?

Maybe we should consider the Kyoto protocol, but something bothers me. China and India are excluded, while the rest of the world must spend billions on reducing so-called greenhouse gases. Yet it's hard to buy anything that is not built in China and impossible to get computer or any other type of tech support without talking to someone in India. Something is wrong with that picture.

In Physics 101 we were taught that it is not science until it is proven. Until then it is a hypothesis. "Man-made " global warming has not been proven.

So, I will remain in the minority arguing against this "environmental/political" issue that will not be resolved for years....maybe not in our lifetime. In the meantime, during this very cold winter...keep "warm" out there.

"Love the Country Life"

I spent most of my life in the city, growing up in Buffalo, N.Y. and then moving to Southern California after high school. After college, we spent all our adult life in the city, running our business in San Diego. After selling the business, we decided to get out of the city and spend retirement in the country...the dream of a lifetime. So we bought a 20 acre ranch on the Central Coast of California.

It’s easy to take living in the country for granted, but compared to the city, here in the beautiful outdoors we are reminded daily of the ways that nature interacts with us. Last night as we lay in bed pondering the silence of the country, we could hear the patter of little feet running around in the attic. I have been spending an hour or so a day recently on mouse control, and spent today installing traps and poison pellets amid the insulation in the attic...bless their little hearts.

Waking up this morning the sun shone bright through our bedroom windows as we looked out over the brilliant hillsides. This morning was special as I woke up to see several deer and their babies in our backyard eating all of my wife's prize flowers...what beautiful animals they are. Morning brings our usual routine of fresh coffee while breathing the fresh mountain air. I then remove the cover we keep over the fish pond. The cover has to be installed every night to keep the raccoons from eating our goldfish. After that I clean the bat guano off the front porch. This morning, I plan to set traps for ground squirrels, who are tearing up the pasture and burrowing under the foundation of the barn. Those squirrels sure are cute little animals.

Today is lawn mowing day. After cleaning the wild turkey droppings off the grass, I plan to put gopher poison in the ten or so holes in the lawn, as the gopher burrows are slowly undercutting the back patio. And then it’s off to the south pasture to spray Roundup on the poison oak and try to get it under control.

We planted a small vineyard several years ago, since it was my dream to grow grapes and make wine. Two years ago was our first harvest of fruit from the vineyard. Unfortunately, before we could pick the fruit, it was all eaten by birds. Those Starlings sure are cute little things. This year we got smart and put netting over all the vines when the fruit started to get ripe...no more problem with birds.
But, surprise...the yellow jacket bees were able to fly through the netting. These pesky critters suck out the juice from each berry on the cluster. But the installation of several bee traps in the vineyard should take care of the problem, and we look forward to picking some fruit next year and finally making some wine.

Gosh...I love living in the country, what a beautiful way to have such intimate interaction with mother nature.