Peewee wrote:
I went on a forty-mile trail ride once and about halfway it started pouring down rain. Not nice riding in the rain for twenty more miles at a walk. I've also had to ride the horses I trained in the freezing cold. Step down off a horse when your feet are blocks of ice, it really hurts. I didn't have a fury hat with ear flaps, I used cloth diapers to save my ears. I love a well-trained horse but wouldn't like it to be my only means of travel. A buggy or wagon isn't much better either, you're still exposed to the elements. I like my creature comforts.
I went on a forty-mile trail ride once and about h... (
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Amen to not returning to the horse and buggy days. I remember some of the dust storms we had back then, and having to crap in a two-holer that would make an icicle out of an unfinished turd; and those times were better than the earlier settlers had. If we really wanted to help, we would buy fewer cars, walk to the grocery stores, and live closer to where we worked. Hell, we wouldn't have to walk on a treadmill or go to the workout centers, which would make it cheaper to live! We might even live longer if Big Pharma doesn't poison us or Big Agriculture starve us with their lower nutritional value GMO foods first!
As to the climate changing, yes it is, and it has been since the beginning of the formation of planet Earth. Mankind is no more than a pimple on Mother Earths butt when it comes to cause and effect.
All of our significant energy comes from the sun, and the sun, along with the Earths orbital mechanics is responsible for the climate changes. We have an eleven year sunspot cycle that causes weather changes in the short terms, but you have to average these short cycles over a period of at least 200 years to see what is really going on, otherwise it is just a change in the weather. "Dark Winter" by John Casey was a pretty good read on this subject if you're interested.
We were in a mini ice age about the mid 1800s, and then we began to warm up a bit following this until about 2005 or so, when the warming part of the cycle peaked out. Now we are on the downward side of the curve and going toward a cooling phase. Times have changed a bit and population has increased, which may cause some problems with our food supply due to the shortened growing seasons. Our increased population in the world won't help this problem so we can likely expect some famine, disease, and violence caused by people trying to get food and stay alive.
If we ban fossil fuels, it will make it more difficult to get what food farmers can raise to the markets. Since the growing season climate will move further to the south, since we are north of the equator, so the distances to markets will be increased, which will require even more fuel. If you are young, hang on to your heavy coat and your long underwear, but at my age, I won't be around to see it, or not much of it anyway.
However, IMHO, mankind has very little to do with it and Mother Nature can take care of herself quite well, as she always has. Various races and species have come and gone over the centuries and millenniums, and mankind may become extinct just like the dinosaurs. We must adapt to her changes, but there is little to nothing we can do about them. Ever wonder how long we would live if the good old sun went dark? A lot of scientists don't subscribe to the BS of Al Gore and his ilk; their scientists and their computer climate models are being manipulated by marketeers for profit, and the populous is thinking with their hearts, rather than their heads. Good luck!