My Global Warming Winters

Photo: Ileana Johnson 2018
Frozen River

Al Gore is now telling us that the cold winter and abundant snow in the north east is due to global warming, that he was right all along about his dire predictions of years ago that earned him a Nobel Prize, a Golden Globe for his documentary film-making efforts, and other accolades from the adoring environmental left.

Polar bears have not drowned, we found out they are quite good swimmers, and their numbers around the world have quintupled. Nat Geo showed us a video of an emaciated and sick bear, as an example of what global warming is doing to these poor little creatures, tugging at our environmental heart strings.  

The polar ice caps have not melted, on the contrary they grew significantly, islands were not swallowed by the sea, ocean front cities are still there and not buried under feet of water as he predicted.

Millionaires with money to burn keep buying and building very expensive yachts, outrageous homes by the sea, and carbon spewing jets. They are not worried about their carbon foot print, only you, devoted minions, who listened to him with reverence and fear, have to drive around in unsafe tin cans, ride bikes, and live in tiny homes in order to save the planet from environmental Armageddon. Environmentalists are laughing all the way to the bank.

Delta is still passing cute little Coca Cola white napkins imprinted with the picture of a mama polar bear and her two little cubs, a symbol of cuteness around the holidays and a reminder that we must preserve such beauty and tranquility in nature while we are flying at 37,000 ft. and sipping our favorite beverages.

As the media escalates its non-stop apocalyptic fixation with climate change and clever scaremongering such as “cyclone bomb,” and “polar vortex,” I can still vividly see the picture of my childhood winters when I walked to school via snow tunnels cut through mountains of piled high white fluffy snow way above our heads, fierce winds cutting our faces with stinging wet snow turned into tiny projectiles, stepping into slush to cross the street, so dirty and deep that sometimes it over-flowed inside my boots, reaching school with wet and frozen feet, necessitating removing the socks and placing them on the heater coils to hopefully dry by the time school was out and the trek back home began. My hands were frozen despite the thick wool mittens my grandma knitted every fall in preparation for the winter onslaught. It was not global warming in the summer, it was not the climate change industry profiteers telling us that Armageddon was near, it was just seasons as we've had them for millennia.

When the sun came up it turned everything into a shiny skating rink on which we, the pedestrians often slipped and fell, suffering injuries then or later on in life when arthritis from injuries began to creep up.

If it warmed up more and the snow started to melt, the slush would overwhelm the street drains and we would get splashed by passing buses who were going a bit too fast and too close to the edge of the road for the treacherous driving conditions. Then everything would refreeze when the sun went down, to the delight of children everywhere who could sled with renewed speed or ice skate. God’s nature skating rink was cheap and everywhere.

As children we would stay out all day, building snow men, sledding down the hill into the street below that had little traffic, getting our outside clothes wet. We never felt the elements, we kept on moving and sweating, our coats and pants would freeze, and did not go inside until moms or dads would come fetch us, usually when it started to get dark and the street lights would come on.

I visited the hill of my childhood sledding – it was occupied by high rises and steps had been dug into the hill. In the street below, a menacing pack of stray dogs was coming in my direction. I did not take a chance and returned to my parked car in the street on top of the hill.

Grandma’s village is semi-unchanged except for the asphalted roads. It would be dangerous and hard to pull a sled now on such heavy-trafficked roads. The road drains are no longer the muddy ditches we played in during hot summers. And no, Al Gore, it was not global warming, summers were hot and we sought shade and bathing in the clear river, with the fishes swimming around us.

The college “snowflakes” of today would have to be provided with warm shelters in winter and cool shade during hot summers. They would have no idea how to survive in harsher conditions because they’ve been so chickified and softened. The pioneer spirit that helped their ancestors survive the harsh conditions of the Wild West had sadly demised long time ago.

Today the college “snowflakes” are expert whiners about the “hurtful” words they cannot bear to hear. Take their smart devices away, free birth control, and “recreational” pot, and they are totally lost.

"Engineering" Climate Change

Ice formations. Photo: Jeremy Smith, 2014

 

 

Our omniscient government is going to spend $1 billion in addition to the billions already wasted so far in order to attempt the impossible, “engineering” climate change to satisfy the Green agenda.

What is the scientific, measurable definition of a “normal” climate change and what is the measuring stick used to determine acceptable variability?  What are the parameters of deciding “normal” and what makes the global warming crowd the soothsayers of climate, especially since they’ve been wrong in their predictions in the last fifty years? Can the Green Agendders describe a “normal” climate change?

The global warming scheme became a very profitable enterprise, a veritable cash cow, until people started asking questions, and Mother Nature froze in thick Arctic ice the scientists’ vessel on their global warming ice-melting fact-finding mission, or dumped unusual amounts of snow every time environmentalists gathered to protest global warming. Returning to the drawing boards, the liberal euphemists came up with a different explanation, Polar Vortex, and the profitable enterprise called global warming became climate change.

It is the same climate change our planet has been experiencing for millions of years called seasons. The seasons caused by the yearly revolution of the earth around the Sun and tilt of the Earth’s axis relative to the plane of revolution.

Singling out oil and coal companies, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told a crowd in Jakarta on February 16, 2014 that “In a sense, climate change can now be considered the world’s largest weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even, the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.”  He called climate change skeptics adherents to shoddy science and Flat Earthers. “We don’t have time for a meeting anywhere of the Flat Earth Society.”

The solution he proposes is a “new global energy policy that shifts reliance from fossil fuels to cleaner technologies” like the one championed by President Barak Obama recently in California.

The problem is not that people deny the existence of climate change. Most people agree that there is a climate change but they deny that it is man-made. There are now over 1,000 real scientists and climatologists that agree that global warming is a hoax. The scientific evidence provided from the left to support global warming is based on “consensus.”  Consensus does not constitute scientific fact. It just means that a group of people are in agreement on a particular issue. The MSM is not interested in hearing or airing any opposing views, marginalizing, intimidating, and suing anybody who disagrees with them. They have decided that it is settled science and that is the end of the conversation, case closed.

The “engineering” of climate change by government fiat, executive orders, taxation, and EPA regulations reminds me of Don Quixote de la Mancha “tilting at the windmills,” an English idiom sometimes used to mean jousting  (the windmills), “attacking an imaginary enemy.”

The consensus argument is that “climate change is real and human activity is playing a major role in an increasingly volatile climate.” The hypothesis of anthropogenic global warming that humans are producing more CO2 is just a hypothesis that has been debunked. Even EPA Director Gina McCarthy said that reaching all U.S. goals for climate change compliance, “will not have an impact globally. You don’t make good, sustainable laws when you make them on unproven sciences.”

The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the “repository of the global warming hoax.” Consensus scientists engage in political advocacy and economic restructuring of the developed world.

As the data scandal from the University of East Anglia proved, there has been serious damage done to climate science, real research, and industrial progress by United Nation’s 30-year “green agenda’s” war on fossil fuels and economic development. IPCC, which is not a scientific organization and is not accountable to any nation or group of nations, has influenced the masses to believe that climate change is anthropogenic (man-made).

What could possibly go wrong with the Green Agenda, the War on Coal, EPA strangling industry with costly and unnecessary regulations, and spending billions of taxpayer dollars on expensive renewable energy such as wind and solar?

-          Utilities are struggling to meet the demand for electricity due to cold weather

-          The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule by EPA put such a financial pressure on the coal sector that many plants were retired

-          After billions of dollars were invested in renewable energy resources, there is not enough solar and wind energy generated to replace the electricity that was generated by now closed coal power plants:

37 percent of electricity generated in 2012 came from coal fired plants; in 2008, 49 percent of electricity came from coal fired plants, a sizeable drop of 12 percent; natural gas fired plants replaced some of the electricity; solar power generated only 0.1 percent of electricity needed, and renewable energy, including hydro-electric produced only 5 percent of that total electricity production (U.S. Energy Information Agency or EIA)

EIA reports 3 percent loss in 2012 of coal fired capacity and by 2020 20 percent of electricity generation from coal will be lost due mostly to EPA regulations (Rick Manning, Americans for Limited Government)

-          The world’s largest generating plant (5 square miles) Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, located in the Mojave Desert near the California/Nevada border, scorches, burns, or singes birds flying into the 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit “thermal flux” around the towers. The 350,000 huge mirrors were killing birds even during the construction stage of the facility. Birds also mistaken the mirrors for water and fly directly into them. The mirrors and towers are used to store heat and to keep generating electricity after the sun goes down.

Ivanpah’s electricity cost about four times as much as electricity generated by natural gas-fired plants but produces far less electricity, not to mention the amount of land required to install the mirrors. The much larger cost will be passed on to consumers.   

A kWh of electricity generated at Ivanpah, if you take into account the price tag of the facility ($2.2 billion), cost $5,561. However, since the plant produces electricity 8-10 hours per day, the cost goes up by a factor of three, making the cost per kWh jump to the “bargain” price of $15,000!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560494/Worlds-largest-solar-farm-SCORCHING-BIRDS-fly-it.html

-          Wind turbines kill 70 Golden Eagles each year at California’s Altamont Pass http://www.theblaze.com/stories/wind-energy-under-attack-for-thousands-of-wildlife deaths/

-          U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Estimated that 440,000 birds per year were killed by U.S. wind turbines http://www.abcbirds.org/abcprograms/policy/collisions/wind_farms.html

-          Study showed 600,000 bats killed by wind turbines in 2012 http://cbsnews.com/news/about-600,000-bats-killed-by-wind-turbines-in-2012-study-shows/

-          President Obama issued executive order to triple government’s renewable energy use by 2020 http://hotair.com/archives/2013/12/12/oh-by-the-way-obama-issues-executive-order-to-triple-governments-renewable-energy-usage-by-2020/

-          Department of Energy gave Green Energy loans to President Obama backers http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/12/new-doe-loans-support-green-obama-backers/

-          Department of Interior explores expansion of permits to kill Bald Eagles in order to accommodate wind energy

-          http://blog.heritage.org/2012/05/09/interior-looks-to-expand-permits-for-killing-bald-eagles-to-accommodate-wind-energy/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FoundryConservativePolicyNews+%28The+Foundry%3A+Conservative+Policy+News.%29

-          The administration excuses wind farms on Bald Eagle deaths but prosecutes oil companies

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/14/obama-administration-gives-wind-farms-pass-on-eagle-deaths-prosecutes-oil/?test=latestnews

-          US gives permits to kill Bald Eagles to wind power providers  http://news.yahoo.com/wind-power-us-extends-permit-eagle-deaths-145931345--finance.html

-          Wind farms killed 67 Bald Eagles in 5 years, a slaughter by any measure http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/11/eagle-slaughter-wind-farms-kill-67-eagles-5-years/

-          Fifty administration-backed Green Energy companies went bankrupt or were failing http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/30/as-many-as-fifty-obama-backed-green-energy-companies-bankrupt-or-troubled/

The Green Agenda cost many California farmers their livelihood and American consumers a large supply of food when the government shut off the water in St. Joaquin Valley to save the Delta smelt, a bait fish that nobody really cared to save. It was not climate change that caused the drought in California – the drought was “exacerbated by federal and state regulations,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca), which positioned “the well-being of fish… ahead of the well-being of communities.”

While blaming this man-made drought on climate change, President Obama promised $160 million in federal aid, $100 million to livestock farmers, $60 million to California food banks, and $15 million to the hardest hit areas. For the past five years, environmental groups were successful in diverting water from farmers in order to save the Delta smelt, flushing into the ocean 3 million acre-feet of water slated for the Central Valley.

The House Bill 3964 to restore water to the area passed by 229-191 votes. The Democrats are holding up the bill in the Senate because the administration is not really interested in passing it. Instead, they are giving more “pork to environmental activists and their victims, offering the farmers they’ve put out of work, a “summer meal plan.”

Preaching global warming and the climate change agenda are more important than a long-term solution for the man-made water shortages that are affecting the $45 billion agricultural industry. These water shortages could be easily resolved, but the government’s solution is to spend $2 billion in a temporary “relief” package that will not solve the long-term problem.

At the end of the day, crony capitalism and environmental interest groups drive the climate change agenda. Their “consensus” political groups and scientists are pressured to tailor climate models to ensure the desired results that confirm man-made global warming. The solar flares, the sun’s orbit, its tilt, the cosmic radiation, the oceanic currents, the fast dissipating cloud cover, volcanic activity, and other natural causes are not considered as variables in the climate change models.

 

The Polar Vortex Was Called Winter in My Childhood

It was bitter cold last night. Tiny snowflakes started to fall in the afternoon, turning lawns into a fantastic winter wonderland. Snow began to accumulate like a soft immaculate blanket. Then the hawk came and started blowing the soft dry snow into swirls of wind, howling past the windows, biting and stinging cheeks with the pricking sensation of needles. The wind chill was below 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

The ghostly whiteness cast an illuminating glow inside the house all night. Trees were claiming their stake of the pristine snow-covered ground with intense shadows. The moon was a hanging globe of shiny silvery yellow.

The sunrise made the snow sparkle with an orange glow peppered with crystal rhinestones. It was an invigorating and frost-biting sun.

When my hubby shoveled the drive way, the scraping of the plastic against the asphalt reverberated in the quiet stillness of the street. An occasional stronger gust of wind would temporarily blind him with a snow shower from the tree tops. The tall oaks were creaking with frozen stiffness.

I had left a six inch deep frying pan on the deck last night and it was now covered completely by snow. I could have used a ruler instead but it was more fun this way.

The roads were deserted in spite of the school closures. Nobody went to work except my husband. No kids were outside playing in the snow or sledding down the many hills in the neighborhood. No laughter of kids chasing each other in snowball fights or building snowmen. Homes were shuttered like tombs.

Even the animals were hiding in the woods. There were no deer hoof prints or fox paws in the fresh fallen snow. A silent black bird with white throat was taking a snow bath on the lamp post. The non-hibernating squirrels were hiding in their nests; the ground was way too cold and frozen to dig for nuts between the evergreens.

Are the kids sleeping late or huddled in front of television or computer screens? Are they frightened by the cold, afraid to play outside because they might hurt themselves?

We used to play outside all day in bitter cold winters, oblivious to frigid cold, wetness, and slosh around us or the adult discomfort and misery. Parents had to walk to work, slipping often on the thick ice. We took tumbles like rubber figurines, getting up with a roaring laughter each time, rubbing the painful part.

Bundled up to the eyeballs in layers, with pajamas next to the skin, kids were stuffed like Michelin Men. We skated and sledded until dark, sometimes hitching rides on the tail bumper of slow moving cars. There were no regulators around to tell us that we might die. When the lights came on, we knew it was time to go home. Our clothes were so wet and frozen, it took a little while to peel off all the layers, like a tight onion.

Some dads pulled their children on sleighs on Sundays, trudging through snow and ice like dutiful oxen to make their bundled kids happy. We tobogganed down a steep hill nearby, climbing it with a flexible flyer in tow over and over until our cheeks were rosy and our running noses red from the blustery wind.

On our way to school, sometimes we were secluded from view and wind by snow drifts on both sides – it looked like we were walking through crystal tunnels, occasionally splashed by passing busses. Often the two mile walk back and forth to school was very cold and painful when we slipped on ice or the wind picked up, we were buffeted so hard that the snow felt like little ice daggers cutting our faces with the discomfort of paper cuts – pain by a thousand miniature icicles.

There was a nice ski resort called Sinaia, not far from my hometown – it was “reserved” for foreign vacationers who paid in dollars and the communist elites who had villas in the area and could afford to buy the equipment, pay for lessons, and ride the ski lift to the top. The skating rinks were reserved for the elites as well – ice skates and boots were very expensive.

Our fun winters from long ago are now called polar vortex by the very wise and omniscient climate change discoverers.

I drove to Sinaia last year and visited the lodging base area where more hotels have been built since the temporary “fall” of communism. Now that capitalism in America has given me the opportunity to afford to fly to a ski resort, stay in a ski lodge, buy equipment or rent it, ride the lift to the top, my knees are not so cooperative.