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Poll results: In very light voting, the majority believe wacky weather is temporary

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Only 236 votes cast on a looming climate question

By Andrew Harris

Wacky weather: Is this the new normal ?

That is the question posed to readers in last week’s poll. The question was born from the crazy Christmas storm and rapid warm up on New Year’s Day.

During the last week, I’d like to mention that on January 4th, while enjoying a warm evening and a big moon, spring peepers began to emerge and sing. That is a first for me and I am sure many others had the same experience. The moonlight, the peeping, the warm air after dark was fantastic. But I couldn’t help realize that the disruption of the annual cycle of that delicate frog would likely be their demise. I also couldn’t help wonder if someday soon, peepers would be heard year round ?

Is this just a fluke, a 100 year wiggle on the weather map of time ? Or have humans created so much carbon in the atmosphere as we have industrialized, that our weather will keep changing rapidly ?

For the few readers who decided to vote(voting is 100% anonymous other than country of origin,) the vote was dominated for the belief system commonly referred to as “climate deniers.” Many intelligent, and thoughtful people are in this poll’s majority. One of my good friends would say:

“Our little toys and factories and leafblowers aren’t going to change a thing. If we started to really bother the planet, it will shake us off like fleas.”

Myself, I voted with the climate change is real contingent, . The data from testing the amout of carbon in our atmosphere, and how that has impacted us is hard to discount. As a civilization we’ve only been able to test the atmosphere and analyze the findings for about as long as we’ve been able to burn carbon at an industrial level. During this relatively short period of time, I can’t ignore the relationship to the carbon in the atmosphere by human consumption, and the increase in temperature. The planet has changed dramatically over time, ice ages have come and gone. How can that data be compared to a time when billions humans have been burning every form of carbon possible to fuel their civilizations growth?

We as a race are unprecedented in this planets history, we’ve only been here for blink in time, and we’ve only been repopulating like fleas for a millenium or so. Since we’ve industrialized and exploded in numbers, the planet warmed consistently. I don’t think that is a coincidence.

About 43% voted in general agreement with me, which I bet is a major shift from when Air Preheater employed more than five hundred in Wellsville.

Thanks for reading even if you didn’t vote. Next week’s poll, out tomorrow will be more fun!! It will be a little more racey so don’t forget, this is anonymous.

PS. Whoever voted from Finland, I hope you were a real person and not a bot!!

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