Man Adapts to Climate Change

 Ted Noel at the American Thinker today has an interesting twist on the so-called climate change hysteria. Mr. Noel uses his vacation to Scotland to point out that not everywhere has the same climate as where we live. He lives in sunny Florida, where it gets so hot that he is driven from the golf course. Having lived in Panama for several years, I can tell him that it is no hotter in Florida than in Panama. And in the Summer, it is no hotter here in North Carolina than in Florida.

These observations point to the fact that if we did in fact have man-made global climate change as the "Karens of Klimate Katastrophe" claim, the areas that are hot today wouldn't get uniformly hotter. Instead, the extra warmth would be in the Artic and Antarctic regions. This is where Noel's story gets interesting. You can find Noel's article at Living With Climate Change.

It’s really easy to think that the whole world is like home. I live in Central Florida, so warming seems like a threat. In the summer, it’s hot enough to threaten my ability to play golf, and it’s “hydrate or die.” Any warmer and I won’t be able to swear and beat the ground with sticks. Then this week I visited New Lanark, Scotland.

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Most of the Karens of Klimate Katastrophe completely neglect the northern (or far southern) climes in their nattering. While various tropical and subtropical areas might have concerns with warmer temperatures, much of the civilized world is actually located in areas where an increase in average temperature might not have such awful effects as are routinely advertised. Florida’s upper crust, who can afford coastal vacation homes made possible by federal flood insurance, might find their property falling into the sea. Ditto for the California coastal elites. The rest of us won’t see much more than dramatic pictures at 6:30 and 11:00.

People in the upper Midwest will be thrilled as winter blizzards diminish. They may have a shorter ice fishing season, but will exchange that for longer growing seasons with fewer parka days. For those who don’t wish to board a giant aluminum cloud for the trip across the pond to experience this, an alternative is readily available. Just get on a floating hotel and cruise the Inside Passage to Alaska. It’s a beautiful trip, and Juneau is the same degree of northern latitude as the Isle of Mull, where I am currently writing. Yesterday the snow level on Ben More was below three thousand feet.

Noel is philosophical about the fact that climate change happens, and always has happened. Man has nothing to do with it, and it is the ultimate hubris to believe we do. I personally attribute this fact to the Creator's plan. After all, would a merciful God give flawed mankind the power to ruin His climate? I don't think so. Indeed, the very idea that meteorologists can't predict the weather with any accuracy a week in advance tells you they have no ability to predict it 100 years from now.

Climate is always changing. Man has nothing to do with this simple fact. Our paltry contribution of carbon dioxide will raise the temperature of the earth by about the same amount that the period at the end of this sentence will block the light from your computer screen. It didn’t begin to rise much until long after warming began at the end of the Little Ice Age about two hundred years ago. If we achieve “net zero,” we may actually see a large part of the green on the earth disappear, since carbon dioxide is essential to all plant life. If, on the other hand, we encourage its rise, then plants will grow more readily in arid climates, allowing deserts to bloom like roses.

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The very idea that mankind can predict or control the climate is an ultimate act of hubris. The pursuit of climate modification is, rather, a religion, whose sole value inures to the person who declares what penance the rest of us must pay in order to pacify the demigods of green “virtue.” It is a fool’s errand, far more expensive to us in taxes and loss of freedom than any imagined benefit. We can and will adapt, regardless. My proper response to those who choose to be my “better” and command my behavior is not printable in this location. It is time for us to demand that they go away and leave us alone.

I urge you to read all of Noel's article. It is not the usual facts and figures, but just common sense.