Global Warming: The Heat Is On

I would think if there were global shifts in climate over a relatively short period, we should look outside the Earth's ecosystem for the cause- say to the Sun.

Yep. And I remember thinking what a waste.

Don't know if the infrastructure was there, but there were communities in the region that were suffering from the lack of water at the time.

Don't know if the infrastructure was there, but there were communities in the region that were suffering from the lack of water at the time.

There was a substantial drought, and the dam wasn't allowed to be opened even for the fish downstream. Instead of adding a little more for a while, they made a foot and a half wall of water roll downriver for several hours.

BEST REASON FOR GLOBAL WARMING...

Count me as a scientist who believes that global warming is caused by hot air in Congress and overheated printing presses at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

-- Posted by a reader on TV weatherman James Spann's blog.

"Mano's book is weirdly prescient about the burgeoning power of the green movement and he explores the darker ramifications of a world ruled by a green/socialist government whose ecological politics have tainted and warped the very fabric of society. Mankind is no longer dominant in this world, but has willingly ceded his dominion over it. The big change comes during a civil war between the Green/Eco forces and the Realist/Christian forces. In the end the Greens won and proceeded to radically remake the world, tearing up highways and parking lots, planting genetically modified plants that could grow in the harsh and polluted soils of the cities, and ending man's consumption of nature's resources. Pretty much what the Greens seek to do now, actually.

"But in this dystopian future we see what would happen if it is taken to it's ultimate end, such as the PETA or ELF folks would have it. For in this future no one farms or raises food, in fact eating or drinking anything is forbidden and punishable under the law. To subsist everyone consumes a liquid e-diet provided by the government. The e-diet is a chemically constructed nutrient rich fluid that the body can consume completely and produces no waste products at all, it is also loaded with narcotics to keep the people docile. Pollution of all forms has also been outlawed, even noise pollution - people are forbidden to listen to music, watch movies, or speak. In fact all communication is by a type of finger-speech or reading lips, and anyone making noise or speaking aloud, even in surprise, can be punished under the law. No competition is allowed either, playing games with others or competing against one's fellow man is a sign of anti-social behaviour and punishable under the law.

"There are more such laws that Mano introduces us to, and he does so in an interesting way. He has Priest, the main protagonist for much of the book, a newly released convict travel from Yankee Stadium (where he was imprisoned for speaking in anger) back to his home in New Loch to be with his wife and new born child. The government has released Priest because their latest policy decree is that the very act of human breathing is offensive to nature (because of the germs and virii killed in the process) and therefore everyone must die. Priest now has seven days to get home before the decreed day of death is final. In those seven days we explore this world and discover that it is a study of opposites, at once verdant and yet bereft life, and that Priest is at once both a hero for wanting to live and choosing life over a senseless death, and at the same time an ugly savage and anti-hero for his actions and behavior. With the sparing use of other characters such as Paul Xavier, the aged Catholic priest who befriends Priest on his trip home, Mano does an excellent job of showing us the logical result of the faux intellectualism and arrogance of the nannystate that a green/socialist government ultimately leads to; a society of death and nihilism, that values even microbial life more than human life, and in the end sows the seeds of it's own destruction."

Review of The Bridge by D. Keith Mano. It didn't do well when it was released in 1973. It puts people like Heidi Cullen and Scott Pelley in perspective. Amazon has a bunch of used copies, less one because I haven't read it in a long time.