Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Dark Days


Dark Days & Great Basin Rye
Originally uploaded by mdt1960
If I were living in the Middle Ages, I'd probably think the world was coming to an end. Instead, I'm told it's only a wild fire burning in nearby Red Lodge, Montana—some 40 miles away as the crow flies.

At 5:00 in the afternoon on the 30th of July, the day should be bright, but if I didn't know any better, I'd swear a class five tornado was bearing down on my little town.

It's amazing to watch the sun high in the sky turn blood red and at times almost disappear completely. And all around me, flakes of ash fall from the sky that likely came from what was a dead or bark beetle-infested tree.

We've seen conditions like this for about five years running now. When I first moved to Powell, I never saw anything like this. Now, it's an annual event. Yet, every year as the fires start up and choke the sky, I still think to myself that all of this isn't quite right.

I suppose it would be easy for me to say something like, "If this ain't global warming, I don't know what is." But, I don't know. Perhaps it's just a little global bad luck, a hiccup in geological time.

Yet, for those who simply discount it all and confidently (or blindly) say it is only a hiccup and global warming is just another scheme concocted by liberal extremist to control everyones' lives... well, that's quite a gamble to make—with everyone's money, isn't it?

Postscript: Which is more believable: liberal Democrats wanting to control everyone's lives by forcing us to rely on renewable and unlimited energy sources or conservative Republicans wanting to continue with their great profits in maintaining the status quo regarding our dependence on fossil fuels?

What's the worst case scenario if global warming is a hoax and we buy into it?

What's the worst case scenario if global warming is for real and we ignore it?

No comments: