Florida Governor DeSantis had been struggling all week with the massive hurricane damage “Ian” inflicted on his state. And it did. The place is a mess. Last week Joe Biden announced he would be visiting Florida too. Exactly what people who have so trashed by a storm think a politician, even a governor or president can do to undo this snafu by political means stretches my imagination, but DeSantis went on to say Biden was welcome, as long as he didn’t come down and promote his global warming political agenda. If Biden did, I knew it would be just to aggravate the governor.

So, I made a point of watching the Biden arrival and see what happened when the two shared a platform. And lo, Biden did say that global warming had caused us to have more and worse storms. But the two didn’t break out in fisticuffs on the platform much to the disappointment of the news corps that follow Biden around. They and we all know Biden and DeSantis hate each other’s guts. Biden reinforced this a few minutes later when he called DeSantis a “F-ing idiot” into a live mike which our ageing president thought was turned off.

All this makes me wonder, “What about global warming, anyway?” Biden and DeSantis aside. Is it real? Well, I think we all will accept that the earth has been mostly warming up for the past 10,000 years or so just as our teachers and experts have taught us. Yep. Just look at the melting polar icecaps. Sure, we’ve had “cooldowns” at time. In the 1700s we skipped a summer, and it snowed in New England in July. It was called the year that summer never came. And since then, we have had some very cold winters. But as they say, that’s weather, not climate. When we speak of global warming, we are speaking of long-term climate change.

So, what causes this? Well, it’s not my expertise to explain it, but I will say this: When God created the universe (and earth) it works out that we animals breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Trees and other vegetation happily breathe in carbon dioxide and put out oxygen. Perfect balance? When man made fires for heat and cooking, he mostly used wood. That too was OK for the trees he cut down and burned were rapidly replaced by natural growth which restored the CO2-O2 balance.

Then we started burning Coal too, and that was a little different. The carbon dioxide turned out by this is not rapidly replaced unless you have a few million years to wait. Same way with petroleum products. A gradual interruption in the delicate balance of Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen in the atmosphere. More CO2 being put out in the air than the trees can handle? The air warms up a little over time. Whether we believe all of this global warming stuff is caused by us or not the earth will continue to warm.

“Experts” believe the earth is actually warming up and that this will end in disaster for us all. Thus, the powers that be, such as those in the United Nations have come up with ways (Paris Accords) to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. They have set up guidelines which have closed down most coal-fired power plants in the Western World, placed strict restrictions on automobile engines and so forth and so on. And this has worked pretty well. Smog in our metro areas is reduced.

Of course, with their liberal politics they excluded some “poor” countries from these rules, such as China and India. They would suffer financially if made to close their coal-fired power plants. Of course, the US, Britain, France and other western nations are made to conform. Doing it this way is sort of like making everyone avoid peeing in the swimming pool but allowing them to do so in one little corner. At least that’s what I think. What about you? I’d like to hear.

And be sure and to church Sunday.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com