Nothing stays the same for long.
2014 looks to be a good example of just that.
Worldwide, September 2014 was the hottest month in 135 years of recording temperatures – since 1880. January through September 2014 tied with 1998 as the warmest first nine month ever measured thermometrically – meaning you could go outside and watch the high red line rise on the porch thermometer. The Earth is on a roll up, with no end in sight.
At this rate, 2014 will be the hottest year in human history.
Not in Minnesota. Relative to average temperatures for the year thus far, Minnesota, USA, is the coolest place on the Earth in 2014. My sister in Minnesota told me something like that, and now I have confirmed it. There is a lesson here that she has been trying to teach me for years: Listen to your sister. Truly, 2014 may be a record-shattering year. I’m listening.
Other places are also not that hot. For the USA as a whole, September 2014 was only the 25th warmest of record. California set records up. Minnesota, as noted, is setting a record low. North Texas and Dallas fall somewhere in the middle, with no records showing. Truly, the world is a mixed place of extremes and not-so extremes. However, when you put them all in a bowl, stir, dip your spoon, lift, blow gently and sample – yes, it is hot, and, to the senses, the hottest ever.
Does that mean we have global warming? Certainly, incontrovertibly and experientially, we have change. As the statistics show, we have change in the climate over a measured period of time. So, we have climate change, which we have had since the beginning of measuring. Perhaps, we have climate change that is representative of a trend in global warming?
Arguments don’t always convince. This can be argued to be a penchant of the species home sapiens. Don’t tell me, show me. This is another enunciation, I think, of the same apparent and possibly shared tendency. If I can’t touch it, can it be real? Approach everything with a grain of skepticism.
Is it a hobgoblin? Could it be a mischievous creature creating a superstitious fear, a bogeyman in the closet causing us to pull the covers over our heads and hide until dawn? I don’t know. These may appear timely thoughts at this Halloween of the year. For sure, the hobgoblins are about. I saw one lit on a porch in the cool of this morning’s walk.
The world has not set a worldwide record for cold since 1916 — except for Minnesota, of course. For all the places of the earth as a whole, the recent records are predominantly hot not cold.
Death Valley, California, is the hottest place on the planet. On July 10, 1913, the thermometer hit 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 degree Celsius). One hundred and one years (101) years ago, Death Valley had its hottest day. It’s been cooling since, highs only in the 120’s F (low 50’s C). Is this that mixing-bowl effect: many other places are hotter, and, upon average, it is the globe that’s warming — except, of course, near Furnace Creek in Death Valley? I’ll let you sample the mix and decide, but you may want to consider a somewhat cooler place.
How about Vostok Station, Antarctica? Russia has a facility there. On July 21, 1983, the hardy scientists in residence recorded a natural ground-level temperature of -128.6 F below zero (-89.2 C). Now, that is sitting down and freezing in place cold cold cold. Thirty-four (34) years ago, the world may have had its single coldest day, though that year as a whole was not one of record chill.
If you can’t convince one audience, move to another or a different subject. That may be an additional axiom of good argument. It certainly can be a crowd pleaser.
Don’t go to the same well too often, or sample the same fare too quickly.
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again — but perhaps not right away or with the same folks.
Take a breather. Take a deep breath.
Enjoy today for today. Let tomorrow worry for itself.
We’re not there yet. There’s always time for one more slice of pie.
Ala mode, of course — delicious hot pie with scrumptious cold ice cream atop.
Now, that’s a change of global proportion. I think I can manage the warming and cooling of those two together.
Food does have a way of making friends, building bridges and mending fences – around the corner and around the globe.
Enjoy,
Grandpa Jim