Thoughts from a global warming skeptic
There is a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests the
world climate is cooling. Is it a perturbation on the upward march
of increase temperature or is it a change in direction? The answer
will not be known for sure for another 50 or 100 years.
I am one scientist who is concerned about global cooling and its
potential negative impact on world food production. Famine on a
global scale could be apocalyptic, resulting in disease,
starvation, and the death of millions of people. That is a far
greater catastrophe than sea levels rising and displacing some
oceanfront resorts.
Thoughts from a global warming skeptic
There is a growing body of scientific evidence that suggests the world climate is cooling. Is it a perturbation on the upward march of increase temperature or is it a change in direction? The answer will not be known for sure for another 50 or 100 years.
I am one scientist who is concerned about global cooling and its potential negative impact on world food production. Famine on a global scale could be apocalyptic, resulting in disease, starvation, and the death of millions of people. That is a far greater catastrophe than sea levels rising and displacing some oceanfront resorts.
Some scientists have been critical of the man-made global warming theory. However, such criticism is not dramatic or sensational enough to make the media. We may criticize the media for being bias but that is a lame excuse. Some global-warming critics make the news but they are rare.
Last year, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano charged Al Gore’s 2006 movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” had some inaccuracies. “There are definitely some inaccuracies. The biggest thing I have a problem with is this implication that Katrina was caused by global warming.”
More recently, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers, an American Meteorological Society certified meteorologist, said, “You know, to think that we (humans) could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant.”
There were very few reports in the United States when the court system in Great Britain ruled Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” had so many errors it could not be shown in schools in Britain without a disclaimer that the film was political.
Real data refute Al Gore’s and Mary Zanger’s (Pinnacle letters, Dec. 12) prediction of polar ice melting and flooding costal cities. Earlier this year, Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, said the Arctic winter (2007-2008) has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year. And this winter (2008-2009) has started out rather severe. The earliest snow on record fell in New Orleans.
More real scientific data is being obtained. The Argos project monitors the temperature, salinity, pressure, and velocity of the upper oceans. The object is to determine the health of the ocean and the effect of global warming. Data have been collected for about five years. The results have shown a very slight cooling. That in itself does not refute global warming. However, can you imagine the hysteria it would have generated if it was a very slight warming?
Last year, Geerts and Linacre of the University of Wyoming published an excellent review on how the sun, more specifically, sunspots, influence the weather. Their correlation of sunspots and temperature covers 7,800 years. The conclusion was there is a statistically significant correlation of global temperature and sunspots. An increase in sunspots correlates with increased temperature, fewer sunspots correlates with cooler temperatures.
Sunspot Cycle 24 has apparently started. However, NASA has reported the sun has dimmed ever so slightly and the number of sunspots has remained low for the first 10 months of 2008. Daily images of the sun showed very few sunspots through December 21, 2008.
The Russians predict the Earth has entered a prolonged period of global cooling. They postulate the real reasons for climate changes are factors such as “uneven solar radiation, terrestrial precession (that is, axis gyration), instability of oceanic currents, regular salinity fluctuations of the Arctic Ocean surface waters. There is another, principal reason – solar activity and luminosity. The greater they are the warmer is our climate.”
The Russians are predicting the entire 21st Century will be cold. If they are correct, history shows there will be a very negative impact on world food production.
Taken alone, none of the above refutes manmade global warming. However, the British put together a documentary about June 2007 that tells a compelling story. You can view this hour-long program at www.garagetv.be/video-galerij/blancostemrecht/The_Great_Global_Warming_Swindle_Documentary_Film.aspx.
We should continue to make every effort to keep harmful materials and chemicals out of our environment. Carbon dioxide is not one of them.
Marvin L. Jones
Hollister
A little about Pacheco Hall
In response to the article of Dec. 19 in the Weekend Pinnacle I would like to add the following items or comments.
These are the minutes of the first meeting held to establish a community hall:
“Public meeting was held May 8, 1893, at Pacheco School House for the purpose of electing a Board of Directors to build a joint Stock Company Hall, 32×60. Shares of each being sold at $5 of which over 200 shares are subscribed for. Land enough for building and yard being donated by Mr. H. Chase opposite the Pacheco Schoolhouse. The following officers were elected for the term of one year.
Mr. H. Chase, president
Mr. J.G. Jarvis
Mr. C.S. Putnam
Mr. F. Vile
Mr. A.C. Ricker
Mr. M.H. Bohlen, secretary
Mr. William Watson, treasurer
Motion made and seconded for M.H. Bohlen and William Watson to collect money for stock subscribed. As there being no more business, the meeting closed.
Mr. H. Bohlen, sec.”
The half-acre site was donated to the community by Mr. H. Chase. The original deed from 1899 shows that the Pacheco Hall Association paid Mr. Chase $1 “lawful money” for the land. The first Pacheco Hall was constructed during the summer months of 1893. Over time it was a center for meetings, entertainment and gatherings for members of the Pacheco Hall Association and the community.
The original hall burned on Oct. 4, 1896. It was replaced with the structure that stood on the corner of Frye Lane and Shore Road for the next 111 years. That building burned to the ground on Dec. 13, 2008.
The Pacheco Hall Association was incorporated on May 6, 1898. According to early minutes of the association, a used piano was purchased and the San Felipe Orchestra would assemble to furnish music at no charge. Admission to early dances was 25 cents and children under the age of 12 were free. On occasion gentlemen were charged admission while ladies were admitted for no charge. As time progressed the admission was increased to $1 per couple, including refreshments.
Plays and dramas were also presented for the entertainment of the community by groups or individuals and the hall committee would furnish refreshments of sandwiches, peanuts, candy coffee and lemonade for an extra fee. Minutes from the meeting of Oct. 16, 1897, state that a cup of coffee, sandwich and piece of cake would be sold for 15 cents or two for 25 cents.
In the early days, advertisements for the dances and dramas were placed in the three Hollister and two Gilroy newspapers and posters were printed and posted around the area. Printing fees for the two newspapers and posters cost $4 in 1893.
The original hall was painted inside and out for a cost of $43.20, including labor. Property taxes were $9.75 and insurance for the hall, valued at $1,000, was $22.50, with the agent discounting his fee. Of course, the “facilities” were out back until about 1935, and a kitchen and small meeting room were added at about that time.
In 1930, the use and care of the Hall was briefly turned over to the Pacheco PTA. The Pacheco Community Hall was then governed by a joint board comprised of members of the Pacheco PTA, the Pacheco Home Department and the Pacheco Farm Bureau. Several local Four-H groups have held meetings and parties at the hall over the years, with the Santa Ana Four-H group continuing to use it for meetings. The hall was used as a political polling place until 2006, when the county realized that the hall was not handicap accessible. Members of the community now vote by absentee ballot. Most recently a group from Alcoholics Anonymous was using space at the hall for their meetings.
The Pacheco Hall Association holds its meetings during the months of October, December, February, March and May. Meetings are not held during the summer months as this was typically when the farmers would be putting in long days working in the fields with their crops and livestock. Membership is limited to families living in what was the old Pacheco School District area.
The current Board of Directors has no plans to disband membership. On the contrary, they have held an emergency meeting to discuss the current issues and are exploring several options for rebuilding or repurposing their property.
Mike Pera
President
Pacheco Hall Association
