Snow Refutes Science

Apparently, record-setting snowfall in the northeastern U.S. has entirely disputed decades of research on global warming. Because, of course, the only logical way to determine what is happening in the world and what will happen is to look only at the moment you're in. Isn't that what's meant by "living in the moment"?

With this logic:

I am always blogging (my three readers are amused by this)
The sun always shines in Oregon in February
I never have hot flashes
My dogs never bark
I am always eating dried blueberries
My roots always match my hair
Oprah is never on television

Whew. It's good to know that the future holds only exactly what is happening to me at this very instant. Otherwise, I might have to face change and you know what they say, "I'm flexible, just don't change anything!"

When I was in high school and college debate (yes, I AM that nerdy), one of the most effective ways to shoot down someone's "case" (basically, suggestions for improving something in the world) was to prove that no one had died from "it," whatever "it" was. Therefore, there was no need to improve education because no one had died from it, no need to list exactly what was in processed food because no one had died from it, no need to invent the internet because no one had died from not being able to FB all their friends while pretending to be doing their algebra in math class..

I believe there is a certain element (molybdenum, I think) that needs to see the grim reaper standing on the street corner with a cardboard sign that reads "Will wipe out the planet for food" before accepting that things need fixin'. I say this as someone who didn't replace her refrigerator until it had shuddered its last moanful cooling sigh and unidentifiable plant life had begun to sprout in the crisper. Yet even with my "I can hold out with the best of the denialists" tendencies, I am capable of seeing that a snowflake here or there (or even 8 feet of snowflakes) doesn't mean earth's heating and cooling system isn't in need of flushing.

So please, if you insist listening to people who scream at you about Al Gore's conspiracy to make the world a better place for all living creatures, at least let logic come up for air occasionally. One quick test: ask yourself if everything you are is summed up by you at the moment you are reading this blog. Or are you more the sum of who you have been, who you are, and who you will be? Our planet's kind of like that too. At least that's what the voices in my head keep telling me.