This is my first posting, it may not be good but it’s a start…

To be fair to anyone reading this, I am no scientist! Not even close!  I’m just a simple guy from Florida, who now lives in the mountains of Tennessee.   I spent 23 years serving in the U.S. Navy, and have lived all around the world; which has made me somewhat opinionated.  Throughout my travels, I have dealt with what I would call very crazy people everywhere I have lived, so I have many stories to tell… but I am getting away from the topic for today which is global warming.  When I was a child growing up in Florida (in the 60/70’s) I remember we had a very bad drought. This drought was so bad I can remember walking around with my dad in what used to be the swamp that is usually under water for miles, and seeing nothing but the white sand and the dried out saw grass. As I said my dad walked with me and I remember seeing lots of dead fish, snakes and turtles,  I clearly remember looking at the small deep lakes the alligators kept dug out and thinking wow Nature has a way to survive.  I bring this up because I remember watching TV and everyone saying that the damage to the environment was irreversible, that the environment would never be the same, and that Lake Okeechobee was way too low and would never get back, they said it was hurt because man had messed up nature, and that too many people lived there (that was in before everyone in New York moved down there)…  and then we had a hurricane… and there was too much water (flooding everywhere).  Changing the topic somewhat, when I was young we had many hurricanes and not once did anyone around me depend on the federal government to provide things. Mom would start in spring and stock up what we called the hurricane cabinet with canned goods, candles, lanterns, and other supplies needed to survive several weeks without power.  We never even thought of going to the federal government for help, it was just not what you did back then. OK back to the topic…

When I was older and in the Navy I was stationed in Monterey CA., this was the 1988/89 timeframe.  I lived on what was then the Fort Ord Army Base. Having grown up in Florida and going on vacations to see my grandparents in Tennessee, I was used to seeing Green all year long, I remember thinking to myself that I was now living in a desert and how dry and brown things were, and I realized that most of California was a desert.  One of my shipmates at that time (navy buddies for the non-navy types) Frank loved to go fishing.  We used to go fishing in the large reservoirs like St Louis Obispo, and I believe is was late 88 that we tried to fish, but again drought and high water usage brought the levels of the lake down.  I clearly remember walking down to the lake shore a long way I think it was about 20 to 30 feet below normal, and again every time I watched the news there were scientists and environmentalists saying that the area would never recover, that humans were the cause and that the planet was in danger, they were worried about the Ozone Hole, and nuclear winter back then (but that’s another Blog topic) the bottom line is when all seemed lost there was a tropical storm that came up the coast and hit…. And well that pesky drought problem seemed to be fixed again…  I am only bringing this up because we are back in a drought cycle, North Carolina and Tennessee are hard hit, but the last few years there were serious floods.  

I know I have taken a long time to get to my point but I can remember news reports of floods, fires, hurricanes and more and they are always dire and mankind will die the end of the world? What good will it do to worry about what we clearly can’t control.   I believe we should be good stewards of the environment, and that we should work to better our lives and reduce pollution. I enjoy camping and want my children to enjoy the beauty of our world as well, but aren’t these environmentalists the ones who believe in Darwin’s Theory?  If they really did believe that then why worry, unless they don’t feel they are the fittest to survive, then I can understand their fears….

Seriously folks, the earth is always in constant change, we can’t even accurately predict the weather beyond a few days, yet people will use warm weather in New York, or the eastern US as proof that they are right.   You can’t use one portion of the world and say its proof that the earth is warming; yet they always do.   The weather is changing, but I worry more about terrorists blowing up things more then I worry about the heat.  My point is I feel we are smart enough to adapt, but the same people who are so worried about Global Warming are the same who said the Ozone Hole would kill us within 10 years, and that nuclear power was evil… so now they propose alternative energy such as solar and wind power… except when it is in their back yard… then they don’t want the view obstructed.   I am for alternative power, but I want it to be done because I want to do it, and not because I was forced to by a government who can’t even create anything without creating such a large bureaucracy to manage it. I firmly believe the problem will only be solved when someone figures out how to profit from it. It’s how our country works… and Yes I’m working on how to profit at this very moment.