HJ-ED-DHJHerald Journal Columns
February 19, 2007, Herald Journal

Can humans cool the planet?


A couple of weeks ago, right after McLeod County was hit with a six-inch snowfall, the temperature dropped to -24 in Hutchinson. A pocket of the county in the middle of Glencoe, Lester Prairie and Silver Lake registered -22 for two days in a row.

According to TV news, the explanation for the super subzero temperatures in the area was because there aren’t many trees there. Also, the strip of prairie extending from Willmar to Faribault received more snow Feb. 6 than anyplace else in the state.

As a result, the infrared rays from the weak February sun reflected off the fresh white snow, instead of being absorbed, and made it the coldest in the area, newscasters said.

In other words, the prairie conditions and snow naturally caused the phenomena.

It’s difficult enough to believe in global warming when you see -22 on your car’s thermometer. But if global warming is real, why must we believe it’s anything other than a natural warming, cooling cycle?

During the Dust Bowl in the early 1930s, it was much warmer than it is now. In medieval times, Greenland also was so warm, Vikings planted crops there. Residents of Greenland don’t bother to grow crops now. It’s much too cold. We could be at the end of a cool period and beginning of another warm period.

We are told if we vote for certain politicians, change our behavior, and pay more taxes, we will be able to cool the planet. It will cost 1 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product to cool the earth 0.7 degree in 30 years.

This is the height of arrogance. Human beings don’t have that much power and control.

Also, the bulk of the restrictions on automobile emissions and other pollution will be on the United States and Europe, not on big population centers such as India and China. They pollute just as much as we do, but because they are considered “developing nations” they will be exempt. How can only our part of the world change global temperatures overall?

There was a time in history when humans believed God dwelled up in outer space. They foolishly thought they could build a tower in Babel tall enough to reach up through the earth’s atmosphere and out to the edge of the universe. There at the top, people could be with God.

Of course, the tower was never completed. It was idiotic to believe humans were capable of such a feat.

Thinking people in the United States and Europe are capable of cooling the entire planet is equally arrogant.