Why be wasteful and gamble our future?

The current political argument about global warming is so stupid, it is almost funny. One very cold day I thought warming might not be bad. Then I realized it's not about the present temperature of the earth but the future temperature a hundred or more years from now. It is about glaciers on many of earth's highest mountains melting. About boats being able to go through the Northwest Passage in the Arctic.

The science of melting is that melting uses up heat and cools things. That's why we put ice in a glass to cool a drink. As the ice melts the drink cools. When the ice is all gone there is no more cooling effect. It is the same with Earth. As global ice melts it uses up heat and the earth will be cooler for a while. But when all the ice is gone there will be no more cool breezes.

While the melting of Greenland, Antarctic and glacial ice in Europe and Asia proceeds there will be unsettled weather because climate also depends on the ocean currents fueled partly by differences in temperature. Perhaps the scientists whose e-mails were hacked were just trying to figure out how to explain these complexities to nonscientists with a political agenda. North America rides high on old continental foundations. How much do we care about the fate of more vulnerable places like Holland, the Pacific islands and Australia?

Is it really better to preserve our wasteful way of life while gambling on the future of much of the rest of the world? If you believe the end of the world is coming soon you don't have to worry about the great-grandchildren of our world. But you aren't God, and only He knows the future.

Ellen H. McDonald

South Elgin