oh no, not again…but remember, this is not a rant!!

First of all: Stay safe, stay sane… what wonderful words in the midst of the greatest sheep-herding exercise in Canadian history. I accidentally was shown a clip of our Prime Minister telling me that this is not the time to fly (as if the airlines can even afford to come to my airport). It would seem I should just trust his judgment about everything around lockdowns and his scientific basis of everything that is happening these days. And it got me thinking – since I am not supposed to rant these days!!

Back about fifty years ago having set up my own consulting firm (since no one of sane mind would hire me after I have received my fourth degree), I was awarded a contract to join the leadership team of the Okanagan Basin Water Study. I came to really enjoy that project, partly because I met, worked with and learned from some really smart young scientists. These folk in combination with the engineers involved in the study along side me, taught me a great deal about water, about the geology of the Valley, about emerging climatic issues. As a sidebar to my main tasks, I was even asked to help them explain to the public at large their findings that we were in the midst of a climatic change process that would lead us into another ice age, albeit in a few millennia. Great stuff to learn about, even greater stuff to have conversations with members of the wider public that wondered how we could counteract this process. After many conversations, discussions, arguments and debates it was the studied opinion that we could do nothing significant, because the sun, the tilt and wobble of the earth, the unfolding cycles of weather and climate, were really considerably more than humanity could offset. Instead we should concentrate on issues like man-made pollution (smog, acid rain, etc.), impacts of man-made construction (paved mountain roads that would increase speed of run-off, building in flood plains, inadequate sewage treatment, etc.) and fair conservation and distribution of potable water so that people would have enough to drink and eat (including storage, irrigation, water treatment, and the like). By the end of the study we came up with a series of reports outlining a path forward that had not only the concurrence of the scientists (both physical & social) and engineers but also of the community depending on this resource. It was the best of times, it was the best of times (partly because, at most, I shoveled my driveway in Penticton where I lived at the time, about twice a winter – but more on this later).

About twenty-five years later there emerged a group of people that suggested scientists were wrong about the movement towards an ice age. In fact they stated that things were actually getting hotter, so hot by way of example that it was projected that by 2020 ski hills would be out of snow and therefore out of business, that winter would be a thing only for the Arctic and Antarctic, and life as we know it would be pretty well over. There were scientists in this group too, although I’m not sure if there were any engineers. The key thing was, however, they told us all we had to do was look around us and notice how there no longer were the winters of our childhoods on the prairies – no snow drifts reaching to the eaves – and summers were warm and delightful. The interesting thing is that there was no reference made to the many hurricanes, tornados, and the like that seemed to be happening in higher numbers nor did they mention that we were in the midst of a period of almost perfect climatic conditions with related superb weather. How do I even remember all this? Well I bought a condo on a ski hill and was told by a couple of people I knew that it was not a good investment because by the time the mortgage was paid off, there would be no skiing. When I said that was okay because it was really to ensure I had a place to live when I retired, and maybe I wouldn’t be able to ski then anyway. So having more open grassy hills might allow me additional walking spaces. Well, they said, don’t come back and complain if it all falls down around you.

Why am I thinking back about this now? Well for this past week I have been shoveling my driveway every morning (I got a break today). And since early December I would say that I have shoveled my driveway and that of the widow across the street and the woman next door who’s husband had a stroke when they first were moving into the community, probably two dozen times at least, maybe even more. That is at least twelve times the amount of shoveling that I did fifty years ago. Moreover, while I did sell my ski hill condo (for reasons other than snow or the disappearance of the same), the ski hill is having another banner year (it being a la nina year) with snow deep enough the water experts have had to adjust upwards the risk of flooding this spring. Now I must admit one of the ski hills in the Valley has gone out of business – but that was due to a serious problem in their lifts and the operation thereof! When I mention this to my friends who are continuing to promote global warming, they now say well actually it’s climate change not global warming!! Now I have never denied that climate changes – my goodness, how could I. I was born in a part of Alberta that at one time was a tropical forest, filled with all kinds of creatures over the ages (including some that decomposed and gave us oil & gas)!! They also get very annoyed with me when I point out that Lake Superior froze over a couple of winters ago. They indignantly suggest that I am focusing too narrowly on years when I should be looking at decades. But then I ask, why decades and not centuries, or more importantly millennia? Then they lean back and hurl the one remaining spear in their frenetic quiver: YOU ARE A DENIER complete with some added surname such as far rightist, anti-scientist, fear-monger, or some other appellation suggesting I just don’t get it!

So here I sit once again wishing that science was more skeptical. Are not the sun, water, clouds, vapor, ice and snow the biggest factors that determine the weather along with the climate of our planet, and not the life-sustaining trace gas CO2, which makes up perhaps 0.04%of our atmosphere? And how is a vital complete of all plant life considered a pollutant anyway? As someone once said to me: Anyone who vilifies trace gas CO2 as a pollutant conducts him/herself in a manner that is hostile to life and is thus not suited to be a scientist, teacher, professor, journalist or politician! Perhaps this is a little strong, but I do wish I could get a better understanding why, if life is evolutionary, it is bad that permafrost may be once again softening and even thawing? And why is it bad that cherries can now be grown successfully north of Vernon in the Okanagan Valley? And why those who are skeptical of and/or within science should not be treated with the same respect that we are supposed to treat those who are not as skeptical. When I am given evidence of the world of the Okanagan before and after the last ice age I see relentless change. Living on the Prairies for a good portion of my life I also saw evidence of millennial changes that often were at odds to the day to day living I was experiencing.

We have challenges to address that will make a difference: clean up our pollution of the oceans, continue to clean up our sewage outflows (by the way, the Okanagan started doing that in a big way in the early 1970’s and turned around the quality of water in our lakes), clean up our parks, recreation and conservation areas (making them real destinations for us to restore, refurbish or renew our mental wellness). We might also improve life if we restored more of our individual liberties, if we used more interdisciplinary and cross-sectional professional input to health, economic, legal and environmental crises. And if we are really upset about the amount of carbon dioxide (and please don’t confuse it with carbon) in the air, let’s use more of it to grow food, trees and green spaces. We could start by planting a minimum of three hundred trees in every freeway clover-leaf interchange across the land and partner this challenge with neighbouring school districts so that applied science can be experienced along with economic re-generation when the schools’ shops cut down a certain number of trees each year to enable the production of nice coffee tables or wooden plates and bowls. Let’s have electric vehicles if they make sense (perhaps as commuter cars & distribution vans in big cities) or even plug-in hybrids if we have the electrical capacity in the grid. Retrofit homes for sure, although if it is getting warmer, then maybe undertake the work only for cooling purposes. But as long as I see scientists working in labs built of materials mined from the ground and enjoying heated facilities in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer, and environmentalists wearing clothes made from petroleum products waving signs made of paper products and talking on cell phones while drinking from plastic bottles, I’d really appreciate a little more skepticism as to the pending end of the world. The world as we know it may end – because the world I knew as a kid has ended and the world I knew in Penticton in the seventies with it’s lack of snow shoveling, definitely has ended…