looking back

I was born in Grand Island, Nebraska 1946 I don’t remember much about the way things were then. It wasn’t till about 1950 that I started to remember things; people still used horse and wagons in rural areas. In town cars were the way to get around. The air was clean but the smell of exhausts fume; well I preferred the smell of the milk barn. It did not burn my eyes. I love going to the mountains’ the air was cleaner and the smoke and smells of the camp fire with eggs and bacon coffee cooking. Is something you don’t forget? We would see deer, bears, squirrels, and porcupines. The fishing wasn’t bad either! Today you don’t see bears, or porcupines. The air smells of car exhaust.  The camp fire and the smells of the eggs and bacon, coffee don’t smell as nice. You don’t see as many deer or squirrels. In town the air smells bad, you have hard time breathing, your eyes burn from all the car exhaust. My kids and grand kids will never know what it was like back in 1950 and their kids and grandkids won’t know what it is like now. I hope that it will be better than it was when I was little.

I remember getting in a little trouble back then. I kind of make I mess out of the barn and my dad’s work shop and let the cows out. My grandmother was staying for a visit got after me and told me to wait till my dad got home. My dad worked for the railroad and was gone a lot. She had me start cleaning up the mess. I knew that dad would not be very happy when he saw the mess I had made.  When he got home he made me cleaning up the whole place and fix the things I broke, and round up the cows.

We all at least most all of us are waiting for our father in heaven to come home. I don’t think he is going to be happy with us and the way we have made a mess out of our home. We have been like children with the new toys tearing up the carpet and the garden, stinking up the air with our new chemistry Set. We have been given fair warning of what he will do when he come home. I don’t know when he will get home, but I think we had better get busy clean up the mess.

“Walk softly and carry a big stick”

“Walk softly and carry a big stick” it was “speak softly and carry a big stick “Teddy Roosevelt 1902. A great man and someone that I admire, from what I have read and learn about him I believe we would have been bullish buddy, friends, sole mates, brothers, comrades. We, I believe share many thing in common.  He loves nature and animals on all kind. Today I thank he would say use the big stick. Will the Teddy Bear be the only bear that my great great grandkids see?  Will Yellowstone become a Disney world theme park, some say it already has?  Will the only tree be the plastic Christmas tree that they know or see? Is this what is coming in 2011 and beyond? There are a very few things that I can agree on with Mister Obama one is cleaner renewable energy. When we changed burning coal and wood to natural gas the air was cleaner. When some makes a killing on a new energy source, you won’t find any gasoline anywhere except at a museum. The giants of the oil industry will and are fighting to keep that from happen. In the mean time the global warming is getting worse! There those that say let god take care of it, put it in his hands, I think that he provided us the problem for us to solve. He put it in our hands! Natural gas, hydrogen, solar, wind, methane, all is clean and or renewable energy.  Being environmentally conscious is not a fashion statement. It means to think, practices, and clean up the mess we have made. The big money, goevrment, banks, investors, and industry, are not going to do it till they can see a profit in doing so. to learn more goto http://www.nrdc.org/issues/

It’s getting hotter!

It’s getting hotter!  Most people don’t understand what the researcher / scientist do. Scientist ask these six question; who, why, when, where, what, and how. They report what they have found, and then they try to come with an explanation as to the same six. They have reported that the data shows a change in the rate that the climate is warming. They are looking at ways to slow the process or turn it around. The warming is a natural event, what is not natural is the cutting down large areas of rain forest, releasing gases in to the atmosphere that can change the process. We just don’t know to what extent we are changing the process or if we can.  We don’t know how or why the planet is warming. We don’t know if we have anything to do about it.  But they see a change in the rate. Man has done some pretty amazing thing since he has been around. We have gone from living in the Stone Age to reaching for the stars. Are we playing with fire? Will the earth and its nature, and god save us from our ignorance and arrogance?  

I am 64 year old, and have worked in research and on studies of the climate. Back in the 19 sixties someone found a hole in the Ozone layer down at the South Pole. Many people started to run around like Chicken Little.  But when the shock and alarm was over and the research was still being done, fluorocarbons were ban and stoped being made, used or put into the atmosphere. The Truth of the hole in the ozone layer is it has all ways been there. It is natural it changes size and depth with solar flare active and the amount of electrical discharge “lighting “ in our atmosphere, as well as the arcing of electrical devices and other natural ozone generating causes.  Ozone is a charge ion of oxygen. Like charge particles repel leaving a space or hole between them. We are still learning about the Ozone layer. Did we have to stop the use of fluorocarbons? That is still in debate.to learn more goto http://www.nrdc.org/issues/

Global warming?

Global warming? Well men have talking about the weather since they started to talk.  We talk about it, but no one does anything about it. Or have we. We have prayed for rain, we have prayed for snow, we have prayed for sun.  We have prayed for wind.  We have tried to forecast the weather. With all our modern technology the best we can do is make a guess as to what the weather will be.  Back when I was a child going to school. The teachers would meet us at the door with a wet brown paper towel too wash the soot off our hands and face.  The order of the day was burning wood and coal. The winter weather was cold and with the temperature inversion the soot would hang in the air, as well as the smell of sulfur.  That changed with the use of natural gas and diesel. So I guess we have made a change in the weather. What we do; does have an effect on the weather. The question is; are we making changes that will make the world a bad place to be? There is no one around that was here when the warming started. Will there be any one around when it stops? We, I do not know. Can we put our faith in the hands of the energy greedy life we are living?  Can we trust the power greedy politician to make thing right? Can we have hope in that the researcher can find the answer?  Can we trust the wealthy greedy industries to stop putting stuff in to the water and air that is aiding the warming effect?