The Power of Nature

Back in January of this year (2016) I submitted a letter to the editor to the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal. They published it but because I did not provide my own title so they gave it one they thought suitable:  "Doom and Gloom Disregards Nature".

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/doom-and-gloom-disregards-nature/article_7eaaaa7c-c378-11e5-8535-5f68e135eaaa.html

And here is the original, as they typically edit letters to make sure they fit or for other reasons:

Being a geologist I am a scientist well trained to be skeptical and so analyse any statement to ensure it correlates with the facts. For example the geologic record well documents climate change as being a normal and natural phenomenon. But human induced climate change, not at all, and I have been very diligent in examining any possible research that could demonstrate such.  Likewise I am skeptic of wild claims without any support such as disappearing caribou herds due to human activity. Pure nonsense because there are no facts to support those claims!

So why is it that we are being inundated by doom and gloom scenarios promoted by environmentalists? And why is it that politicians have taken up the same fear mongering, especially the Liberals? I find it especially ironic that Justin Trudeau campaigned against that very activity but in the very next breath jumped right on the band wagon.

I chose my life’s work because of my desire to work close with nature, and I have not been disappointed. In doing so it has left me in awe at our insignificance and very respectful to the power and total disregard to human endeavor that are the relentless elements and time. We talk about “preservation” and say things like “for ever” but nature does not stand still for us nor will it ever. Only a fool would believe that they can control nature.

What is most galling is that the “answer” the environmentalists promote is that we must stop every activity that ensures our way of life and our current level of prosperity. So we must willingly give up every means at our disposal that ensures we can cope with what nature throws at us? To keep ourselves warm and fed and able to afford the means of continuing to do so?

Is this environmental cleansing any different than “ethnic cleansing” and every other dastardly scheme that some group has come up with to reshape to their liking everyone else, just like so many other radical groups through human history? No, we don’t need to fear nature and our interaction with it. We need to fear ourselves because we are our own worst enemies.

This elicited a rebuttal from a Barry Beaupre:

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/climate-sweet-spot-is-in-great-jeopardy/article_a7665e72-c475-11e5-8a83-3ffdf893bdd9.html

This "rebuttal" , to me, just showed the ignorance of so many people out in the world and why "Climate Change" and "Global Warming" have and still has so much traction. So I submitted a response especially to address this nonsense of a "climate sweet-spot":

Re: "Climate Sweet Spot is in Great Jeopardy".

So, Mr. Beaupre couldn't understand what my point was with my recent letter to the editor. Well, I won't mince words. The point was to get people to think first rather than follow blindly the protestations of "environmentalists", the latest of a long line of radical evangelists. And obviously Mr. Beaupre is one of these zealots as evidenced by the misinformation in his letter.

"The delicate climate balance"? "Climate sweet zone"? Obviously he has no idea what climate even is. There are three primary climate zones: polar, temperate and tropical and each can be sub-divided into several others such as "desert", "mountain", etc. So tell me Mr. Beaupre, which is the "sweet spot"? And to think that we humans can modify "climate" is pure hubris.

A friend of mine describes mans relationship to earth using the metaphor of "like fleas on a dog". Other than the odd irritation the dog couldn't care less. And we have plenty of evidence for that; for example the terrible strife we inflicted upon ourselves during the 20th century including two World Wars and the use of atomic weapons. Those events had no impact on the "delicate climate balance" although they had a dramatic effect on humans.

We are bombarded right now by evangelists such as Mr. Beaupre who wish to "save the world" , which is implying we are omnipotent, which we are not. And the answer is to destroy our economy by implementing "solutions" that have no factual basis? It galls me to see right across North-western Ontario in particular the slow collapse of small communities and the stagnation of the larger ones, especially Thunder Bay, because environmentalists are against anything that can even maintain a semblance of the prosperity that we once had.

And if you wish to have a good read I suggest you check out "Hubris" by Michael Hart:

https://www.amazon.com/Hubris-Troubling-Science-Economics-Politics/dp/0994903804

In closing note that the Chronicle Journal did not publish my response. It was then that I realized that they only printed material that supported their narrative and that is obviously the pro- Climate Change one with the odd letter such as mine to help stir like minded people like Mr. Beaupre. I haven't bothered sending anything to them since as what is the point when, rather than supporting open debate, they actually wish to promote a particular bias.