By Dennis Cole

It has been about two weeks since I wrote the column “Is it hot enough for you? No!,” May 29. I must confess on the day the column appeared I was on the way to the western coast of Florida with my Beth for two weeks of relishing 90-degree weather. We got lucky; it had been “cooler than normal” there prior to our arrival. But the area is recovering nicely now; the water temperature just off Caspersen Beach was slightly above 80 degrees. In our absence we missed all the scorching heat wave the mid-Atlantic states were experiencing. What’s that? It’s been cooler than normal here? Still? What’s up with that? What about “global warming?”

Upon my return I was somewhat disappointed to see only one dissenting letter to the editor about my column. Usually when I write about the environment or the global warming myth, I get tons of hate mail. Either those who differ in their thinking from mine have been out of town, or just maybe they are coming around. The one letter was from Alan T. Brown, who also opposes my views on abortion and Margaret Sanger, the “Mother of Death,” but I digress. Anyway, Alan disputed my statement that the Earth has been cooling since 2001. Unfortunately, it wasn’t my statement; I was just repeating what NASA had reported. Hey, Alan, don’t shoot the messenger. Alan went on to state that the glaciers have been steadily melting worldwide since 2001. Not entirely true my friend, check your facts.

Here are a few headlines that have appeared recently: July 8, 2008, USA Today: “Glaciers on California’s Mt. Shasta keep growing”; May 5, 2009, Discovery News: “Some Himalayan glaciers growing”; Oct. 13, 2008, Anchorage Daily News: “Bad weather was good for Alaska glaciers.”

Why are glaciers growing? Quite simply, global temperatures are dropping.

That’s all northern hemisphere stuff, what about the other end of the Earth? In September 2007 according the NASA GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) data, (not me, NASA; again, not me, NASA) the South Pole winter has cooled about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past 20 years. Ice levels on the Antarctica continent are now at the highest level since 1979 when satellite recording first began. As always, Alan, I provide the Tribune with the sources I use for every column. I can’t just make stuff up. It is not inconvenient to print the truth.

I based my last column on data showing that the sun was in an extended period of quiet sun spot activity. Scientists at NASA (not me, NASA) first reported this phenomenon. The sun radiates more heat when there are more sun spots; conversely it produces less heat when there are fewer sun spots. On that note, I would like to advance this scenario to all my readers. Let’s say there is this hypothetical person who lives in a house where he is actively and deliberately destroying the planet by using a furnace to heat that same house in the winter. The higher he sets his thermostat, the more the furnace runs and produces more heat, subsequently the temperature in the house rises. Likewise when he lowers the thermostat, in essence the furnace runs cooler and the house gets cooler. Pretty simple stuff here, I noticed it works the same way in my car too. Let’s now pretend that he lives on a planet that is heated by a star. We’ll call the planet “Earth,” and we’ll pick a name for the star; let’s see, how about “sun”? So if we on the planet Earth get our heat from the sun, then the sun is our planet’s furnace. So, if the furnace that heats our planet is running a little warmer than usual, over time our planet will become warmer. If the furnace runs a little cooler for a while, common sense dictates that our planet will be cooler as well. This is exactly what is happening right now.

Once again, folks, don’t shoot the messenger. Look beyond junk movies like Al Gore’s to dig up some facts independently. There is an agenda out there driving the global warming hoax, and the root of the agenda is not pretty. The debate on climate change is far from over; more and more data now points to a cooling planet. Please, please for your own sake, and for your future comfort, buy a place in Florida.

Cole is a lifelong resident of Meadville. You can contact him at dcole4@earthlink.net.