On Global Warming -- and Global Raining: Email to My Daughter Jennifer

Hi Jen,

Tomorrow morning I will edit your last piece of work which contains more information about global warming than I have known about it to this point in my awareness and education. It is a new subject matter for me which I have not researched at all yet.

My main suggestion with your last piece is that you find a way to put a little more clout behind your arguments. Don't be bashful or wishy washy. If your reader makes one or more good counter-arguments, acknowledge him or her. But if you see some holes in his or her argument that need to be confronted, then hit him hard in this respect...If you feel confident of your particular perspective -- stick to it -- and don't beat around the bush.

For example, off the top of my head...

If you live in the middle of a forest and there is more carbon or carbon dioxide in the air, with the trees breathing it in, and recycling it into oxgen, then this may be good for you. This could be where I am looking to live in the future. Nova Scotia -- as long as you are not right on the coast -- might be alright too.

However, if you live in New York City or Los Angelos, where there are very few trees, you could be suffocating in your own carbon dioxide. A large city is not where I would want to live.

Nor would I want to live in a coastal city or town because I would be afraid of being washed away with the next hurricane and/or tidal wave, and/or flood.

Global warming means global raining. This has been more apparent so far than the warming. While temperatures so far, still seem to be relatively normal, precipitation -- meaning rain and snow -- seems to have doubled or tripled. This may be good for plants -- as long as they still get some sun. But I don't want Toronto, Ontario to all of a sudden start to feel like London, England or Vancouver, B.C. I still want some sun.

And if the temperatures do at some point start to significantly rise, this could be okay to a point. But I don't want to have to start wearing long shirts and a hat because I am afraid of the prospect of skin cancer. Worse, I don't want the Earth to start to feel like it is becoming more like Venus. I don't want to be scalded or scorched off this planet. Nor do I want to start thinking, with all due respect for those who live there, about moving to the North West Territories.

Or Alaska. Fast forward to 2030 -- I won't be alive so I won't have to worry about it -- and we see that Alaska has become the most populated State in America. What has happened to the rest of America? New Orleans and Miami have disappeared into the ocean. Fires have burnt down L.A. and San Fransciso. People have evacuated New York City because no one can breath there. Hospitals around New York City are full of cases of people with emphysema, lung cancer, and other breathing diseases.

Given the horrible possibility of a scenario like this,

I don't think we should feel too complacent or reassured when we read John's more favorable outlook on the possibilty of our future...

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John said...

This election saw most Global Warming initiatives fail, for good reason. The principle reason is that most consumers, farmers, ranchers and foresters understand two things. First, global warming is good, not bad. Second, carbon in general and carbon dioxide in particular is good, not bad. Higher average temperatures together with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reduce crop failures and improve crop, grazing and forest production. Those two factors are the principal forces greening the planet and feeding all of us today. Liberal and eco-cults want to torpedo that winning combination. Why? Perhaps readers have some ideas here.


November 7, 2008 11:09 AM


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John, with all due respect -- and believe me, I hope that you are right -- but in my mind, I don't think you are taking the potential negative consequences of global warming -- and raining -- seriously enough.

I think we need to do some significant things to change the direction we are going, relative to global warming -- and as I have argued, perhaps even more dangerously -- global raining.

-- dgb, Nov. 15th, 2008.