Cold Days in the Midst of "Global Warming"

"Man is certainly stark mad. He can't make a worm, but he makes gods by the dozen." -Michel de Montaigne

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A busy morning for an old retired guy. Up at 5:30 a.m. so I could preach at the 7:00 and 8:30 a.m. Masses. Then, facilitate a Bible Study for an hour, followed by a meeting with several parishioners to plan a novena and celebration in February for Our Lady of Good Success. The afternoon has been far more relaxed and has given me an opportunity to catch up on my reading, write this post for the blog, and prepare for this evening's Bible Study. With any luck I'll be home in time to watch tonight's bowl game.

Of course, throughout it all, I'm constantly grumbling about the absolutely crazy weather we are experiencing here in Florida. As I drove to church this morning at a little after 6:00, the outside air temperature reading was 23 degrees. Yes, I know, all you folks up north wish your weather was that warm...but this is Florida! It's not supposed to get that cold here. This ain't International Falls, Minnesota. And they're predicting more of the same throughout this week and into the next. Of course, the daytime highs will be in the 50s so it's not all that bad...but it's still far below what we normally experience this time of year.

Dear Diane is worried about her camellias surviving the hard freezes and so she's covered them with newspapers and plastic bags. The heck with the camellias, I'm just worried about my surviving, and I suspect a large plastic bag would only aggravate the situation. It's remarkable, though, how quickly one gets acclimated to a new climate. Diane and I moved here from New England just six years ago, and yet whenever the temperature drops below 40 I am extremely uncomfortable. In fact, if I can't wear shorts, I consider it a very bad day.

All of this causes me once again to question Al Gore and his corps of global warming doomsayers who expect melting ice caps to cause the oceans to inundate our coastal plains any day now. The trouble is, where is the warm weather? And it seems to be cold everywhere...the UK and mainland Europe, North America, China -- all are experiencing extremely cold weather. It all makes me seriously doubt the claim that humanity has such a large impact on the world's climate. The world has experienced countless cycles of ice age and warming, all without any input by humans. And I suspect it will continue to experience these cycles in the future.

I read this morning that this winter may turn out to be the coldest in 25 years. Here's what AccuWeather.com had to say:

Nearly the entire eastern half of the United States is enduring bitterly cold temperatures not experienced since 1985. Even Florida, which has been hovering around freezing levels overnight recently, is also feeling the almost-nationwide chill.

"It'll be like the great winters of the '60s and '70s," said AccuWeather.com Chief Meteorologist and Expert Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi.

The last time a large swath of severely low temperatures struck the nation was in January 1985. That historic arctic outbreak had below-zero temperatures Fahrenheit stretching from Chicago eastward to New York City, and all the way south to Macon, Ga.

Makes you wonder doesn't it? Especially in light of the recent revelations that some of the world's leading climatologists connected with the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia were fudging the data to support their global warming theories. Indeed, according to a piece in the London Times, they apparently did all sorts of nasty and very unscientific things:

"(a) the scientists have been manipulating the raw temperature figures to show a relentlessly rising global warming trend; (b) they have consistently refused outsiders access to the raw data; (c) the scientists have been trying to avoid freedom of information requests; and (d) they have been discussing ways to prevent papers by dissenting scientists being published in learned journals."

It all seems to fulfill a prophecy of sorts made by sociologist and historian Robert Nisbet who, in an essay written almost 30 years ago challenged the myth that the Church maltreated Galileo.

"Probably more scientists have been adversely affected – stopped altogether from a given line of research, guided, shaped, propelled, decelerated, forced into non-publication, secrecy, turned down for funds or promotion, and barred from access to laboratory space or archives – because of defiance of conventional wisdom in America since World War II . . . than existed in the whole of the world in Galileo's day."

Nisbet was no Catholic, indeed he could hardly be called a believer, so he had no ax to grind when it came to Enlightenment myths and the Church. If you'd like to read more about Nisbet (who died in 1996) and global warming, check out this essay by Scott Walter on TheCatholicThing.org

This, of course, should remind us of how human and, consequently, how sinful we all are, even the supposedly most rational and objective among us: the scientists. We are all tempted to serve ourselves instead of the truth. That's what Satan does. In his temptations he tries to subvert our innate desire for God -- "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" -- by making us long instead for the things of this world.

There are certainly no lack of problems confronting us today, and I think we humans can honestly claim to be the source of most of them. As Christians we are called to address them by applying Gospel values and the teachings of our Faith. But, personally, I really don't believe that global warming is among them.

Stay warm and God's peace...