Well, the weather forecast for the rest of May doesn’t look too cheery with intermittent rain punctuated by daytime temperatures in the 50s and low 60s until the end of the month. I do hope that Memorial Day was better than the weather bureau predicted. If it wasn’t certain, the national corporate media would blame it on DOGE inspired cuts or on those old and slightly tired words “climate change.”

There used to be a day when you could have a friendly conversation about the weather but today writing or talking about the weather may open you up to attacks on your intelligence, and your lack of caring that the world is on the brink of destruction from a climate change alarmist. I admit that climate change is real but that it is part of a natural ongoing process that started with the Earth’s creation and will only end when a dying sun swallows it up several billion years down the road. Climate change alarmists do not accept this position because in their minds they are right even if they have scant understanding of the facts.

Extreme climate alarmists like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg think that our climate is changing and that life as we know it will end in eight years, perhaps ten years, or at some future date. However, all they have really succeeded in doing is scaring small children, who will probably need treatment for depression in the future and impressionable under informed young adults who have decided not to bring children into such a world.

The furor over global warming started rolling when former Congressman, Senator and Vice President Al Gore was unable to steal the 2000 election from George W. Bush, with his spurious “hanging chads” argument. In an effort to remain relevant he fell back on “Global warming” an issue from his congressional days giving us lurid word pictures of melting glaciers and ice sheets signaling the end days of mankind.

I don’t know if “global warming” as climate change was called in those days kept him relevant, but it sure made him rich. In 2023 the UK Daily Mail did an expose on Gore’s take from his climate alarmism stating that to date Al Gore had made $330 million from climate alarmism. Also, the former VP made a fortune when he set up a green investment fund now worth $36 billion that pays him $2million a month. It appears that branding yourself an environmentalist out to save the world from climate disaster can be very profitable.

Today any blip in the weather such as the drought in much of southern California which led to the disastrous Los Angeles wildfires brings cries of the dangers of climate change when in reality we should question how a city came to be in a bone dry desert. In the same way when hurricanes strike the east coast and do more damage or kill more people we should understand that it’s not that hurricanes are more powerful but that more people are choosing to live in coastal locations. It’s the same in “tornado alley” as it has become more urbanized. More people and growing communities mean bigger targets for tornadoes.

All the doomsday talk about climate change has led to misguided government programs coupled with tax credits that have led to the rise of a new breed of snake oil salesmen bearing

promises of clean air and endless riches who are increasingly descending on unsuspecting communities. Their message is that all you have to do is allow us to build untested and unproven towering wind turbines, solar farms and battery storage facilities and your lives and communities will prosper as never before. Of course, these hucksters never tell us that the huge blades of the wind turbines kill birds of prey, songbirds and mosquito devouring bats or that solar arrays are ugly and a blot on the landscape.

The question that we have to ask ourselves is why and how we came to this point. Actually, I think that the answer is simple enough; those who make up the power elites feel that they know better than we the little people what is best for the world. For them climate change is nothing more than a way for them to control us. Don’t you sometimes wonder what goes on in the back rooms at Davos Switzerland where the so-called elites meet every year?

President Trump’s recent executive orders cutting onerous, and time consuming regulations on the nuclear power business clears the way for this source of renewable, tested, reliable, clean, and always available renewable energy to assume a key position in powering the Artificial Intelligence revolution of the 21st century.

The challenges of a changing climate have aided the advancement of civilization. During ice ages our ancestors learned to build shelters that protected them from the cold, and they developed clothing that kept them warm in the coldest conditions. They learned to use fire to heat their shelters against the cold and discovered the joys of roasted and boiled meat and plants that released more nutrients from their food leading to the development of larger brains.

Our ancestors met the challenge of climate change in the same way that we have and will continue to. There are things that endanger the continued existence of mankind, but climate change is not one of them.

Thomas Kirkpatrick is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.