There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear; or, some thoughts on 'global warming'

I tend to count myself as a skeptic on the matter of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (CAGW), for multiple reasons; for one thing, back in the 1970s, some of the same people who today warn us about global warming, such as Obama’s ‘science czar’ John Holdren, were warning about a ‘new ice age’, or ‘global cooling’; for another, there was that Climategate scandal at the University of East Anglia a couple years back (in which certain scientists complained that the data they had didn’t fit with their expectations according to their model, which didn’t make them question their model, though); for yet another, the Left has been solidly behind CAGW, which is as good a reason as any to be suspicious of it, since they are usually wrong and evil and untrustworthy, dishonest liars.

And yet…  All that said, I can’t help shake the feeling that the climate has changed, visibly, during my lifetime, whether or not due to man-made reasons, or natural cycles.  I know that winters today in southern Ontario are very, very different from those I remember in my childhood, growing up; the weather was more consistently cold and snowy, and temperatures stayed well below freezing for most of the winter; whereas in recent years, the temperature has been up and down, yet not down as far as it used to typically get, and up high enough, that people have still managed to harvest plants like mustard greens, parsley, and cilantro / coriander, from their herb gardens that should be dormant since the end of fall, but in fact have continued growing!  I also know that summers were more consistently hot and humid here when I was younger, whereas there have been quite a bit of cooler and drier days in recent years than I ever remember there being, as a kid.

I know I’m not alone in my anecdotal observations; I’ve heard the same from many.

I was glad to be pointed to this essay at Amerika.org (hat tip: Ferd).  As Brett Stevens wisely points out:

[T]he debate on global warming is poisoned, and it was poisoned by the left. [...] Caught in the middle are those of us who think something weird may be going on with the climate, but that global warming is not an accurate description.

Stevens goes on to consider some other possible sources of rising planetary temperatures that aren’t getting as much attention as the usual culprits blamed; one such main one being urbanization and the turning of productive farmland into suburban housing, neighbourhoods, etc., affecting the amount of light and heat reflected back into space.  And he examines how and why conservationism became hijacked by the Left.

An interesting and provocative piece.

I agree with the Amerika.org folks that conservation should be a conservative priority – as it used to be.  Our natural environment, of which God appointed us stewards, is far too important to allow to be politicized and claimed by the Left.  We live on Earth, and so we do have a vested interest in its preservation and sustenance.  So then, let us reject the Left’s substitute (for Christianity) false religion of environmentalism, in favour of a conservative, traditionalist, patriarchal (this is our Father’s world, after all) conservationism, based on rational, enlightened self-interest and God-honouring principles.

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