Well I certainly haven't intended to let this go this long without posting something. Really I had thoughts I wanted to share but something always got in the way. Much of which was a lack of creativity to put those thoughts into words.
First there was the idea of global warming. Instead of spouting off figures that someone else has already spouted off, I though how about a individual view of how the environment has changed over ones lifetime. Like when I was a kid we had snow in the winter, for much of the winter too. Quality snow that you could ski on. If you were lucky Memorial day weekend would be warm enough to go camping. Typical summer forecast was cloudy with frequent rain showers. Those times the sun was out you could expect about 75°F and maybe even over 80°F. That was hot for here in south central Alaska. August come in and it was as if the switch controlling the seasons was changed to rain. August always seemed to have at least 15 days of rain, or more. Snow starts to appear on the mountains bordering Anchorage, termination dust as its called since it signifies the termination of summer. Labor Day weekend was usually the last weekend most people went camping, temps started to drop off after that. September generally brought the first snow fall of the upcoming winter, I recall many times in school the silence of school work was broken with "its snowing!". Usually we had snow on the ground by last week of September, first week of October. The snow was wet, heavy and perfect for snowball fights.
These years the winters aren't as bad, defiantly as long as before but the snow seems to be lacking. Evaporation of the snow over winter seems accelerated as well. This spring was the coldest on record, but oddly it felt like the spring of the past. Last few years we were getting 50°F days in April and into the 60's by May. 80°F summer days became the normal temp, my house would get so hot that we could no longer keep tropical fish alive, their tank water would get too hot and they would die. Fish it seems don't take well to changes in temp. Rain wasn't a normal event, until August. Even then the number of days of rain was less on average, probably down to 10. September was warm enough for the first part you could still feel comfortable camping, need a jacket but it was OK still. October would be cold, wet and no snow. If it did snow it wouldn't stay since the next 40°F day would melt what little snow fell. Lately it seems if you have snow before Thanksgiving then its early. That first real snowfall that stays on the ground is usually the first week of December.
Comparing the two time periods I have to say the temperatures haven't changed all that much, sure they went up but not a great deal. But the amount of rainfall and snowfall is very much different. There just seems to be less of it overall.
Now then another thought I had; I heard that the war in Iraq, going on to its 4Th year (now longer than the US involvement in WW2) has a price tag of $500 billion so far. Two things I wonder about that. 1, to come up with that amount of money, and have tax cuts as well, where did the money come from? What programs and budgets were cut to provide this money. Why wasn't that money available for other programs prior to this war? Is the loss of that money going to cost us more in the long run?
2, Can you imagine taking that money and providing it as a grant, not a loan, to any US Citizen that is capable and willing to go to college? Like all grants put in a performance clause so that if you don't go to an accredited college you don't get the money. Don't show up for classes, don't pass enough of them, no money. On a global scale we are facing competition with countries based on labor. China has a huge labor force that work cheap, 64 cents an hour. India also has a large labor force. Why should we compete over jobs when the foreign labor rate is so much less? Why not raise the bar on our employable base of the population? More engineers, doctors, scientist, etc.
Well just some thought... Till next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment