The Senate and climate change

As I was getting ready to swing down to palmer for my Thursday volunteer time at KVRF in Palmer, I caught a story on the Today Show about Congress and a vote on the subject of climate change.

In a 98-to-1 vote, the U.S. Senate officially recognizes Climate Change is real and not a hoax. But though a majority of Senators voted for them, amendments that would take that a step further and say man is responsible for the change failed.

Excuse me? That stopped me in my tracks, dumbfounded.

I accept that climate change has happened in the past with some really powerful events that lasted millennia in some cases, like the last ice ages, or the tropical warmth of the Mesozoic era that stretched from pole to pole for more than 200 million years. This latest round, however, is being helped out by modern, industrial man.

To deny this basic fact flies against all logic and reason. To me this was a major head-slapper. As in, “you got to be kidding me! Really?” Those were my thoughts as stepped out the door to warm up my car.

So who do we blame this on? There is plenty of blame going on here.

Do we blame the whales since they are second when is comes to intelligent species on the earth? No. While they are makers of long songs sung in the deep, they lack hands to make tools. Sorry, can’t drive a truck with flippers.

Or how about our primate cousins? Nope, while they do sport hands with an opposable thumbs, they lack skills such as speech and tool-use. They are just too primitive at this stage in their evolution. Some primate species are having the hardest time just trying to avoid extinction.

The hard fact is the mankind is biggest polluter on the planet and, last I saw, the only one. Since records have been kept from the 19th century on to the present day, there has been a steady rise in global temperatures. This past year — 2014 — was the warmest on record according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s the source of the wild weather many have been going through, sometimes with tragic results from hurricanes, tornados and flooding just to name a few.

The constant pumping out of gases from our cars, trucks factories and power plants is taking a toll. While most of the Western world has been taking steps to reduce the amount of pollutant, other nations are far from lifting a finger to do anything about it at all. Case in point — China. With all those coal-fired power plants and a new-found love of the automobile, China is now swamped with record-breaking smog so thick one could cut it a with pick axe.

Alaska is a virtual canary in a coal mine. With rapid glacier melt, polar ice retreating, permafrost melting and releasing methane gases, has scientists flocking up here in record numbers. How we adjust to all this is just one of the aspects of climate change that has these scientists seeking answers for the questions they raise.

So man is not at fault? The list of what our species has done to this earth is staggering. And it is coming back to bite us all in the, well, posterior. Our so-called leaders need to pull their collective heads out of the dirt because we need to find ways of adapting, reducing and just living with all the changes that are happening right now and well into the future.

Climate change is here to stay. No matter what those in the Senate believe, mankind has played a major role in this ongoing play. How did that saying go? “Don’t mess with Mother Nature.” That’s it. Well we have and now the time is coming to pay the piper, so to speak.

The Senate did get one part the issue right. Climate change, it’s not a hoax. But that body failed oh so badly on who is leading the charge down the slope on climate change. Why is that? Can anyone out there explain that?

This latest round of senatorial illogic would even leave Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame speechless. It has me flabbergasted.

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.