Global What?

I'm one of the many people not completely convinced that cyclic climatic changes can or should be attributed solely to human intervention. I have written about this at length, and somewhat cynically, here, and here, and probably ten other places, too.

Of course I believe we have an obligation to safeguard our environment through protection of natural resources, responsible industrialization and development of new energy sources. If the trendy "green movement" manages to make that happen quicker than it would have otherwise, well, yay.

I sometimes feel, though, that the greenies are dancing a strange manic dance, echoing some ancient ritual of sacrifice to the weather gods. The past two centuries of scientific knowledge and technological advances have allowed us to become incredibly arrogant. Where once we stood in awe of the unknown, we now think we understand most complexities of the natural world, and worse, we labor under the delusion that we can exert significant control over it.

A friend and faithful reader of this blog, who lives in spotted owl country north of me, forwarded the following article by Oregon geologist Rauno Perttu, which was published in a local newspaper. Mr. Perttu was kind enough to permit me to link to it HERE. I'm offering it without comment -- it speaks for itself. (After linking, use the "View Full Screen" option at the top of the page, next to the title.)