Cold snap!

I understand why those living through "The Great British White Out" would question global warming theory. Weather is intimate to everyone, and while slipping around on a freezing road during a shortage of road salt, it would be easy to ask "Just exactly when is it going to warm up?"

Conversely, those living in Cherrapunji, India are asking "When is it going to cool off?" They are used to living in what used to be known as the wettest place on earth, but because of apparent global warming, rainfall is disappearing.

Those of us who grew up in Black Forest (north of the Springs) know that severe winters seem to come in cycles, and everyone here in Colorado Springs has experienced some significant cold this winter.  But what exactly is going on?

Scientists insist that global warming is still occurring, but in longer and larger cycles, so regional variation is only that: Regional. Massive amounts of geologic evidence suggest change as the constant in the earth's climate history, and relatively recent cycles of global glaciations bolster the argument for constant change.

Politicians want to use climate research for policy creation, and the recent cold snap has given opponents of environmentalism a platform. "The Environment" has always been a perfect political point of contention that can evenly cleave the American public along existing cultural lines.

The problem, or beauty, of the situation, if you want an evenly divided nation, is that the existing divisions amongst Americans are made from core values instilled over lifetimes of experiences, which are shared across generations. So, the earth is either something to marvel at and preserve, or something to use as a raw material and manage. Weather is either something to cherish and fear, or something to use and fight.

One thing is for sure: Weather doesn't care about us, but everybody cares about the weather. Perhaps that's because it is such an important part of life that we have a hard time stepping outside of ourselves. But we really need to look at apparent weather patterns in their own temporal dimension. Which is way longer than we have been watching or paying attention to. 

Humans actually were watching, but we don't have the record of what happened. Paper is inherently subject to the weather. Records are impermanent. Maybe we should look down on our ancestors for fighting amongst themselves instead of taking steadfast notes on the weather. Or maybe we should look down at ourselves for thinking our science can figure out all things absolutely.

We have fantastic tools to analyze weather patterns but not enough raw data to feed them. Our policies are dictated by the bipartisan shakedown, and environmental policies are ripe for contention. But politicians will never stop fighting, and the weather will never stop changing.