THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, June 21, 2012 A
brendan@weirs.com inNEW HAMP SHI R E FOOL * Live Free *A FLATLANDER’S OBSERVATIONS ON LIFE SOMETHING I READ
I a m reading some - thing that I’d like to share with you. I t ’ s a
by Brendan Smith Weirs Times Editor
story in a magazine. The story
is called “Are Our Seasons Changing?” and it was written a few years back. With all the doom and
gloom scenarios about supposed global warming I couldn’t resist. The article starts by quoting another article. “Statisticians tell us that
the American Summer is growing warmer every year and that in a very few years a ‘hot wave’ will be with us. Not for a few days at a time, but for many weeks. If this is true, American Citizens must learn to endure heat with more fortitude and self-restraint than they have displayed during the recent hot wave.” “Ar e Our Seasons
Changing?” was written to debunk this theory that the earth was “warming.” As evidence they used temperature readings of the past 150 years. That is the past 150 years be- ginning in the mid 1800s. You see, “Are Our Seasons Changing?” was written in 1901…111 years ago in a magazine called “The Granite Monthly.” It was noted that... “The
winter of 1754-55 was un- usually mild. Navigation on the Hudson was not closed and troops sailed from New York to Albany during January and Feb- ruary. “In 1841 the first fall of
snow (in New Hampshire) was on April 29th. The winter of 1852-53 is re- ported as one of the warm- est on record.” “In 1850 rain fell every
day from July 14th to Au- gust 9th.”
“In July the mercury
stood at ninety-five and over in the shade for eigh- teen days of the month.” Apparently people were
arguing over changes in the earth’s tempera- ture even then. Still, it all seemed a little more level-headed than today. No groups were gather- ing to protest at the local candle factory or to stop people from riding horses because horse manure was a big pollution prob- lem back then. There also weren’t tens of thousands of people on the govern- ment payroll doing every- thing they could to create panic so as not to lose their cushy jobs as envi- ronmental specialists; at least not that I know of. The article I read had
some smart reasoning be- hind people’s perceptions of climate change. “The short and defective
memories of people who recall a few seasons and exaggerate the frequency of some special event… Do you not remember a number of years ago the disastrous storm that stopped traffic for days…. but can you not clear the cobwebs from the memory and recall how even and almost tame were the re- maining eighty-six days of the season?” Back then people were
blaming the cycles of the moon, a much more rea- sonable explanation than aerosol cans and SUVs. “Years of study have
acquitted the moon of the charge. Our climate comes to us ready made.” Of course, today, we are
under the impression that our climate would remain constant and beautiful, every day, if people would just stop driving cars. Unfortunately, we will al- ways be at Mother Na- ture’s mercy… and it isn’t necessarily our own fault. “The severity of the type depends upon our posi-
tion in regard to the centre of disturbance.” Today, this author may
just be burned at the stake…. if they weren’t worried about the smoke affecting the atmosphere. The article ends: “A hun-
dred years is not sufficient time in which to discern a persistent variation…. There is every reason to believe that the earth, dur- ing its early history, was warmer and that a con- tinuous change in the cli- mate has been effected…. There is no one who has observed anything with which to further his belief in a changing climate ex- cept as the fluctuations of a type or types that have been misinterpreted.” In all fairness, I didn’t search out any other ar- ticles written at the time about climate change. Maybe there was someone who was railing against horse manure as caus- ing warm winters or the smoke from candles caus- ing drastic changes to the atmosphere. If you know of any, I’ll be happy to read and report on those here as well, but I’m pretty confident you won’t. As you can tell, I am a
bit of a skeptic when it comes to global warming. Articles, especially ones like this, reinforce my skepticism. I have friends on both sides of the issue and no one ever wins an argument. So, once in a while I
just like to put things like this out there to poke the bear. Right now I’m preparing
for 90 degree tempera- tures heading our way after unseasonably cool June temperatures. Perfect weather to sit
back and do some more reading.
Brendan Smith wel- comes your comments at
Brendan@weirs.com.
or Die. Over 35 years of Beautification Complete Landscaping & Masonry
www.landscapesbytom.com TOM BRYANT
3
Unique Gardens Designed
Installed & Maintained Ecological Design
Organic Gardening Methods Unusual & Native Plants Meticulous Maintenance & Pruning Kitchen Gardens Edible Landscaping
NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care
ARTISANS LLC
www.gardenartisans.net
GARDEN 603-524-8607
Black
#3
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40