[Julie Steiner]

For shame, Richard. On the surface his "Fire and Ice" statement seems reasonable and balanced, but do you really think a guy named Frost was unbiased?

[Richard Meyer]

Of course Frost is reasonable and tenable in his poem! His last name is just a happy accident.

In addition to the various metaphorical interpretations possible in the poem, there is a valid scientific angle. I read long ago that Frost asked a notable astronomer how the world would end. The astronomer told Frost either the sun will explode and incinerate the Earth, or after the sun’s demise the planet will wander off into deep space and freeze. A year after that conversation, the astronomer was surprised to see “Fire and Ice” in print.

Richard

[Charlie Southerland]

I remember living through the summer of 1273. You cannot believe how hot it was. It was so hot that when I took my armor off, the chain mail took some of my private's skin with it. Couldn't set a horse for a month. And then when winter came early, snow covered the castle, froze the moat solid. Those damned barbarians skated across it and nearly killed us all. If it hadn't been for Kate Upton, we might well have not lived to tell the tale.

A serious thought just crossed my mind. Stars are known to blow up. Planets are known to die. What makes any serious person believe we had anything to do with those occurrences? We polluted Love Canal and it cost gazillions to clean it up. But we cannot control weather events or earthquakes or volcanos. We can't control the tides or the amount of sun that shines upon us.We can't stop an asteroid from destroying us, Bruce Willis, or the numerous rats The Pied Piper led to glory.

We can't even stop each other from killing us. And who in the world doesn't think the government won't tax us out of our homes based on a theory that only works for their advantage? I remember them trying it in the 1970's when global cooling was all the rage.

If you want to stop global warming, several billion people will have to die first. Good luck with that.

If you don't want to cool the world, you'll have to make more babies.

I suggest reading and embracing that all time globalist guide to health and wealth: Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

[Julie Steiner]

I dunno, Charlie, that sounds as if you've rewritten this...

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

...as this...

God grant me the serenity
To accept depressing stuff as it is,
So that I need not inconvenience myself and others by trying to change things
Through courage and wisdom.

[Charlie Southerland]

Julie, Mighty Atlas still carries the world on his shoulders. I have no such aspirations. I wouldn't think depression or lack of courage to change things
that cannot be changed has anything to do with me.

I believe that Earth has a lifespan that cannot be quantified by mere men (or women.) It is directed by something greater that us.

Al Gore, and others have said that global warming caused the harsh winter past. I would think that if that's true, then the faster 'we' warm the planet, the faster it'll cool by The Great Scientist Gore's reckoning. Earth has always gone through cycles of heating and cooling. It will until it doesn't anymore. That is realism, not speculation.

I gave up listening to Global Warming Alarmism when the State of Washington and the E.P.A. began trying to tax dairy farmers and the general populace for bovine flatulence, aka cow farts.

I gave up listening to the pap when the government began taxing us for the water runoff from our roofs after rains.

It rains a bit in Seattle. More rain, more taxes. We are being taxed for rainwater.

Now they want to tax us for sunshine. How preposterous.

Progressive government cannot survive without controlling the checkbook of its citizens. By the way, there are several progressive states that are flat broke.

People are being made to swallow this drivel so that they will voluntarily agree with the mandated taxes that can't possibly be collected by any other cogent or legal means without a rebellion breaking out.

Progressive government thrives on the ignorance of the people it governs. Deny that.

[Julie Steiner]

Hmmm. Maybe I'd be more concerned about rainwater taxes if I didn't live here:



That's the thing about global climate change--it's global. That means it's bigger than local phenomena. I don't think your calculations showing that things are actually getting colder, based on the harsh winter in the Northeastern U.S., is considering that this has been the hottest March on record here in San Diego.

It's inaccurate to conclude that climate change isn't happening, just because in some areas it has been snowing more than usual. That precipitation would normally have fallen in California, but high pressure systems in weird places meant that our winter storms instead got directed along a more northerly Jet Stream to Boston and New York and environs. Similar high pressure systems in weird places were responsible for weird weather effects like the Polar Vortex and the derecho in recent years.

Weird weather has happened before--that's why we have names for these things--and you're right that the planet goes through warming and cooling cycles. But whether or not these weather extremes are caused by human activity, dealing with them is expensive, and yes, taxes will go up as a result.

Penny-pinching governments have neglected paying for infrastructure maintenance for decades--often out of a desire to keep kicking the unpopular tax can down the road to another political party's watch. So, yeah, unfortunately, even if "global warming is bogus," it's time to pay the piper for a lot of these deferred maintenance things, because wild weather won't let those long-deferred maintenance projects be deferred any longer.

[John Whitworth]

Of course climate change is happening. Nobody doubts that. It happens all the time. People are arguing about why. And nobody knows why. Which doesn't stop them having strong opinions about it..

It's bloody cold out there.