The Bosque Boys

Some are using the early snow in the northern U.S. today to spoof at the idea of global warming Before you join the jeer party, remember these bits:

1) The model of global warming includes increasing fluctuation in temperatures and weather. More energy in the atmosphere means more movement of air masses. And, breakdown of established patterns of air movement. One can expect some unseasonable weather during a global warming period.

2) Temperatures will fluctuate. Keep an eye on the yearly averages instead, especially the overnight lows, not on brief periods of cold or warm weather.

3) Remember, we have never trashed a planet before. We don't know exactly how it will work.

My earlier post Hot Summer and Global Warming and Global Warming: A Genuine Concern.

I oppose Free Trade, as it is generally practiced. I'm in favor of Fair Trade. Here's one reason why: here in the U.S., and in some other countries, we have come to understand the dangers of pollution. We now have laws in place regulating air and water pollution. These laws increase the cost of manufacturing in the United States. Many other countries do not have laws like this, or do not enforce them, and so have lower production costs. Therefore American manufacturers cannot compete against nations with lower production costs. What American consumers are doing is choosing clean air and water for us, but consigning many members of the third world to lives threatened by manufacturing pollution. This does not seem fair and just.

Much of our manufacturing is now done in China, at great environmental cost. Here is a UPI story, linked on Drudge, on the new Chinese record set in August for days of acid rain. China currently leads the world in sulfur dioxide emissions, which forms acid rain when mixed with water. If things continue, I think we soon will see airborne pollution over the US from China.

Answer: fair trade, not free trade. I think we should not import goods manufactured by plants that would not meet US safety and pollution standards. To do otherwise is to destroy our own manufacturing base, and to help create pollution abroad.

About four years ago I became aware of research being done in France on the possibility of cars that run on compressed air. What a simple, elegant solution. Commuter cars do not travel that many miles, and could easily make the commute between refills of air. While an energy input is needed to recharge the air cylinder, it is easier to clean the stacks of an electric power plant than to clean the exhaust of the tens-of-thousands of cars that clog the cities during commuter rush hours. Will it work? I do not know, but the idea should be getting research money.

Here is a link to a site promoting the compressed air auto. Below is a skeptical article from 2000 from the New York Times.

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Yesterday evening we had a light shower of rain (.15", not enough to matter a lot with our year-and-a-half droughth, but we are thankful for what we receive). This morning early the dogs and I walked along the edge of the creek below our house, along the moist dirt exposed by the low water levels. Minnows splashed along the water surface, a squirrel chattered on the other side, otherwise it was quiet. Too quiet.

I grew up on a farm in northern Missouri, quite a ways out in the sticks. One of the dominent summer sounds of my childhood was the frogs: in the night you could tell where the ponds were for nearly a mile in any direction by listening to the croaking, bellowing, and trilling of frogs. The first night of spring that we left the windows open I usually had trouble sleeping because of the noise of frogs from nearby ponds. Any summer day I walked along the edge of a pond or creek, my steps were preceeded by the sound of the frogs ahead of me jumping into the water.

Now the waters are silent. Frogs are rare. Not just where I grew up, but about everywhere in the United States. Not just one species, but all species. What happened to the frogs? Some things have been written about their disappearance, but it seems to me that this disturbing fact has not entered the national consciousness. Perhaps we are too much an urban nation now to notice. Something is going on in creation and we need to take notice. We need to be asking if it is our behavior, our pollution, that has caused this die-off? As a Christian I believe that we humans are to be stewards of creation who will give an account of our stewardship to God. Will God asked us, what happened to my frogs?

This article, which points out that temperature records from the 1930s still stand, has been circulating around the blogosphere. Often it is used to argue against the reality of Global Warming. I have stated my opinion in support of the reality of Global Warming before.

The relevant point is not that some record highs from the 1930s still stand. Look instead at the averages: the first six months of this year were the highest on record. I think there is cause for concern.

Last week our family gathered in a cabin near Rocky Mountain National Park. One of the things I noticed was the amount of new construction of houses and cabins up in the mountains. No surprise to me that folks would want to live up there full or part-time. The natural beauty almost overwhelms the mind.

But, more people living in the mountains means more human noise, fewer pristine views, more demands for water and for sewage treatment, more pollution including from automobile commutes to Denver or wherever to work. One can imagine a day when congestion has destoyed the attractiveness that drew the people who moved there. Cont.

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I take the danger of global warming seriously for the following reasons. (1) I think there is enough data on increasing temperatures, etc., available to indicate that something resembling a warming trend is happening to the earth’s climate. (2) No scientist of whom I am aware questions the model, i.e., the scientific explanation, that carbon dioxide in an atmosphere helps to trap heat. (3) Industrialization, combined with population growth, has increased the amount of carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere. (4) Caution should be used with regard to the livability of our planet—it’s the only one we have. In 40 years we do not want to say “Oops.” It may then be too late. Having only a single resource (one planet), a reasonable approach is to be careful with it. I think the burden of proof is on those who would risk the livability of the earth.

(cont.)

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In the early 80s I drove twice-weekly from near Princeton, New Jersey, up to Kearny, on the Jersey side near the Meadowlands. I usually took the Jersey Turnpike until the Kearny exit. For this country boy, the site of the landfill affected me every time I saw it. Huge! Mountainous! Growing! Acres of trash being compacted by heavy machinery and picked over by seagulls. It did not take much imagination to envision a day when the landfills just for the New York City metro area would cover more area than a west Texas county to a depth of over a hundred feet. We can't keep doing this sort of thing forever.

I think it a Christian duty to promote and to practice the Three R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Even little steps count. Our grocery store sacks into smaller-sized plastic bags. I reduce the number of bags by requesting no bags for milk jugs, sacks of potatoes, etc. that I can carry just as easily, or perhaps more easily, without the bag. We reuse the bags by using them as trash can liners in the bathrooms (reducing another purchase), and by giving them to a fellow-church member who uses them to clean up after her dog when she walks him. A small step, but small steps add up. I have a box in the corner of my office for white paper to take to recycling. No hardship. Just the cultivation of a certain habit.

Looking at our wasteful culture, it is tough to believe that we are the descendants of people who practiced "A penny saved is a penny earned," and "Use it up, wear it out, make it do."

The Wall Street Journal's online Opinion Journal feature Best of the Web Today by James Taranto links to this story from the New York Post in which Hillary Clinton is reported to have called for a return to a national speed limit of 55 mph.

Well, even Hillary can't be wrong about everything. In this case I agree with her. A 55 mph speed limit may well be a needed step at this time, for the following reasons. (cont.)

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