Thanksgiving came really early this year. A results of climate change, no doubt.
On a more serious weather note, we had our first freezing weather this past Tuesday, November 25. That is a little later than the average, since the historical average is on November 11. But the first freeze here on record was October 14, 1988. The latest was December 26, 1918. We were well within that range.
Weather and climate change. Weather changes day to day to day and even hour to hour, but climate change is a long-term trend over many years. No doubt it is changing, but how much is man made is open to debate unless you have an agenda and insist the science is “settled.” Real science is open to adjustments based on new information, and almost all science has changed over the years.
The day after Thanksgiving the National Climate Assessment (NCA) was released. This gloom and doom report, based on their computer models, came from government agencies with agendas. Their recommendations were that everyone sacrifice our lifestyles to avoid perceived catastrophes.
Some problems with this report include:
1. The report claims climate change will cost the US economy 10 percent of gross domestic product by 2100. But that projection is based on our climate being 15 degrees warmer by then.
That is a guess way beyond even the UN’s guesses from the International Panel on Climate Change. That group guesses the change at that time will be less than one-fifth, or just under three degrees, of that.
2. The NCA predicts more hurricanes, floods and wildfires. But last year, in the annual report for that year, it shows no increase in any of those. This has been a bad year for all three, they claim, but one major hurricane does not make a trend, and a state mis-managing their forest to protect endanger species, leading to worse wildfire dangers, does not equal climate change.
The NCA also uses timelines for their projections with arbitrary starting and ending dates, cutting off their information to show trends longer term timelines do now support.
3. The NCA report would lead to the IPCC recommendation of a huge carbon tax by 2030. That would increase your electric bill so much you could not afford to run air conditioners, heaters or most electric appliances. And your gas would cost would go us so much you could not afford to drive.
I will pay attention to the doomsayers when they lead by example. As soon as they walk or ride horses everywhere they go and stop all use of electricity produced by fossil fuels, including that used to charge their electric cars, I may pay a little more attention to them.
Last Thursday it was 27 degrees at daylight but 60 by 3:00 PM, a change of 33 degrees. But I didn’t see dead animals everywhere from that drastic change. The lake water at Lake Martin dropped five degrees last Tuesday in the six hours I fished, but dead fish didn’t float to the surface.
Like wildlife, we adapt to daily changes much more drastic than the projections from government agencies wanting to spend our money and make us change our lifestyles while not changing their own.