Editor’s Note: My last posts really left my numbers flagging. So to kill off my readership altogether, I thought I’d share some new thoughts:
I’ve Been Wrong Before. I’ll Probably Be Wrong Again. And I May Be Wrong Now, But…
I’ve recently been called a Troglodyte (not personally, just my relations) because of my views on ‘Climate Change’. It used to be because of my views on ‘Global Warming’. But that moniker has changed, since there hasn’t been any for the past ten years. Now we’re supposed to be very frightened because the weather is changing.
“Doesn’t the weather always change?”
“No. This is Climate Change.”
“Well, why are we experiencing ‘Climate Change’?
“Because of ‘Global Warming’!”
(Return to beginning of article…)
We’re supposed to be getting even more frightened as the days pass, because Climate Change is supposed to be occurring along an exponential curve. This is what all of the august scientific bodies tell us.
“Are you sure it’s all.”
“Yes. All credible sources.”
“And these are the same sources who warned us about Global Warming?”
(Return to beginning of article…)
“But aren’t these the same sources which warned us some 30 years ago that we may very well be entering a phase of Global Cooling, and might have to consider spreading coal dust on the ice caps to absorb more of the sun’s energy.”
“We’ve learned a lot since then.”
(Return to beginning of article…)
It used to be that CO2 was just something plants used to grow, and animals produced when they breathed. Now, however, it has been declared a ‘pollutant’ by the EPA, and needs regulating.
(Start holding your breath here. And we will try to make it to the end of this piece before you are forced to break a future federal regulation. Think of it as being like pushing in a DVD and seeing that FBI anti-piracy warning that flashes on. No biggie. You can DO this.)
Apparently CO2 is one of the determining causes of ‘Global Warming’. Which, though it does not currently exist, is the cause of Global Climate Change. Which DOES exist. You got it? (Or are you just STUPID?) …because of Global Warming.
(Return to beginning of article…)
CO2 does this through a process called the Greenhouse Effect, wherein excess CO2 causes more of the sun’s energy to be trapped in our atmosphere. This extra energy in turn produces more violent storms…. but apparently not Global Warming. At least in the last 10 years. Even though it apparently did so before this.
All credible Scientific sources apparently agree on this, even though the evidence apparently does not.
For example, fossil evidence and geological measurements indicate that in the past, levels of CO2 twenty times the current level did not accompany the extremes in temperature currently predicted.
In this case scientific sources apparently disagree on this, though the evidence agrees.
Alright. We’re done. You may duck around a corner, out of sight. Small breaths, now. And don’t be greedy!
Photo by Carl Nelson
From the Editor’s Perch
January 8, 2012“Artistic Failure in America”
I take this title from a blog of the same name. Here’s a post to get you started: http://www.artisticfailure.com/category/artists-who-fall-through-the-cracks/
I especially enjoyed some other articles on this blog about “grizzled artists” – what happens to artists as they get older?
By far the largest percentage of artists are financially unsuccessful. (Can you holler? “We are the 99.999999…%!”) In a society moving so quickly that it’s hindering to stop and puzzle over anything , artists can be slow off the mark. Artistic endeavor tends to be quite introverted. Couple that with failure – or just an initial ‘failure to launch’ – and you have the recipe for a mesmerizing dance which can pull an artistic mind downward, occupying its thoughts for years. Or, you become successful! for whatever reason, and go on some crazy, lunatic’s getaway of fifteen minutes with the Bitch Goddess.
Better to rush headlong than to be left behind! Or. Stay awhile. Look around. Get creative. Think your way out of this. Failure and success are both interesting mysteries. Artists worship mystery and often find themselves caught like clouds of gnats buzzing in the darkness of those hot summer nights around the mesmerizing effect of those glittering imponderables… often wondering if they should continue on in the cultural buzz, or just fall out of the air. Thinking, while at the bar with another cold one, ‘this all made sense, when I dreamed it.’
Photo by Carl Nelson
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