No More Global Warming, . . . Whew!

George Will has been reassuring us lately that this current global warming scare is like the 1970s ice age predictions, and we all know how that turned out. Actually, I do remember those predictions. I was relieved when global warming took over, because generally I prefer warm weather to cold. But what I don't get is why anyone would pay any attention to George Will on this particular issue. (Why anyone would pay any attention to George Will on any other issue is a separate question, and I don't have the answer to that one either.) You can probably find out just as much about the potential for global warming or cooling by checking with my mother, who pays no attention to outside temperatures unless or until she has to go outside. She looks about as far ahead as the next twenty minutes.

But, then, I suppose it's only human to worry about the future, even if we're not going to be around all that long. Some people will always expect the worst, while others will hope for the best. What confuses me about this global warming controversy is that politically it seems to be divided up all wrong. The liberals are betting on disaster, and the conservatives are insisting that things won't really be so bad. I don't know, but it just seems wrong somehow. Why would the tax and spend liberals not be in favor of just going ahead and using up the bio fuels now and hoping we'd find some other energy sources later? Let the kids worry about it, right? And shouldn't the conservatives want to conserve our energy and prudently plan ahead for all the different eventualities of climate change? It just seems that somewhere back there they started out backing the wrong side, and now they're locked into positions that don't make sense.

But the really strange thing about the climate wars is that we're arguing about this in the first place. I mean, we're arguing about the weather, right? They say it's going to snow tomorrow, but I don't believe them. They've said that before and they were wrong. You can't trust the weather. It keeps changing. I could predict that it's going to be a lot warmer or colder next year, but you'd have to be a fool to bet on it either way. But, then, I suppose we are betting on long term predictions, or those folks buying ocean front property are.

Well, I guess some of us do have a stake in what happens, but is there really anything we can do about it? Don't get me wrong, I've invested in those incredibly expensive spiral light bulbs, which my wife hates, because they might save same some energy, be good for the environment, and even in the long run cost less. But I'm under no illusion that they will really change the climate. And I figure none of this makes any difference for me or George any way, because we won't be around long enough to see whether the seas rise or not. The difference, of course, is that we keep paying George for those stupid columns. What he really better hope is that we keep believing in spending our few remaining dollars on those newspapers he writes for.