Having recently celebrated my 100th birthday, I have taken the time to reflect on many things. Although we recognize July 4, 1776 as the date our Independence was declared, it wasn’t until June 21, 1788 that New Hampshire became the ninth and last necessary state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby making the document the law of the land.
In any form of government, a republic like ours or a democracy or a dictatorship or any whatever, it is advantageous to have a compliant population. It helps to have issues that will consume their energy and avoid any thoughts of discontent. In the USA, we have latched onto issues with abortion, equity and climate change, among others. Let’s talk about climate change.
I don’t think we pay much attention to history these days, but think back to 1816. The massive 1815 eruption of Mount Tambor in the Dutch East Indies spewed ash and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, cooling the Earth and disrupting the weather, affecting millions of people in North America and Europe.
That year — 1816 — is known as the “Year Without a Summer” because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by 0.4–0.7 °C. Get that? A change of 0.4 to 0.7 degrees centigrade. Doesn’t sound like much does it? However, it was an agricultural disaster. Historian John D. Post called it “the last great subsistence crisis in the Western World.”
These days, we are told we need to reduce the average global temperature to “save the planet.” How much? Would it be reversible?
You may believe in a supreme being (God?) or not — but somehow we have a climate system that has served humanity for our recorded history as we know it. Now we are trying to become our own “God” and change weather to fit our design. It seems in this old codger’s view to be a recipe for disaster.
Walter Thomson lives in Warminster.
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