Changing weather patterns

Will changing weather patterns affect a trophy buck’s patterns?

Anglers and hunters who yearn for spring need only step outside. Our winter weather is so mixed up that no one knows what to expect.

Here it is, the end of December and the snow is melting tonight in 38-degree evening temperatures. The forecast is for possible rain showers tonight and tomorrow.

Possible snow? The chance for snow flurries? Chances are like betting on the roll of a pair of dice. Maybe it will snow a bit later this week, but perhaps it won't. Where is our normal cold weather.

It seems the possibility of a culprit may be at hand. The weather service hints that El Nino is at fault. It seems that several years ago El Nino took the blame for something else. Something must be wrong.

Predicting weather is supposed to be scientific but forecasts often are wrong.

Folks, the changing weather patterns are goofy, and have been for many years. Is it the fault of greenhouse gas? Is carbon monoxide to blame? How about flatulence in cattle? Some years ago they were blaming the gas used in aerosol spray cans caused weather changes.

Our planet is no bigger now than it ever was but there are more people on Earth than ever before. They breathe in oxygen (and smog) and breathe out carbon dioxide. More people, more carbon dioxide, and more diesel and gasoline fumes. More smog in our cities, and more weather problems. And less we forget, remember the cows.

The problem will only get worse. I read where ice is melting at a faster rate in polar regions, and the earth is warming up. So, what does this mean for you and me?

Will New York and Los Angeles soon be under water as ocean levels rise? Will more people be moving inland away from the oceans, buy land on a mountain, and stay high and dry? Who knows? Will an earthquake topple the Pacific Rim into the ocean, resulting in a staggering loss of life and trigger tsunamis?

Every time one of the world's many volcanos blows its top, and spews tons of ash, debris and smoke into the air, the worse things become. Every time an earthquake rattles the ground, and some buildings and bridges topple, things get progressively worse.

Is the weather all wrong? Is it changing or are people just learning how to adapt?

Should we be like Chicken Little and run scared? No, I don't think so yet, but as mankind continues to overpopulate the earth in an ever increasing manner, more people must breathe and travel to work. Hydrocarbons are released into the atmosphere vy the gazillion, and as more gasses pollute the upper atmosphere, the warmer it wil get.

There will become a greater need for water, and the arid southwest would like some of our Great Lakes. We have water bottling plants that suck millions of gallons of state water from the earth so people can pay Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle money for their bottled water. As the earth warms, and water becomes more precious, this demand will grow.

Much talk was made of making ethanol from corn some years ago. We have lots of corn, but if the atmosphere changes, and the tendency for warmer temperatures increases, will the rain and snow pattern we've seen the past month continue? Most likely it will dwindle, and it's hard to grow corn in a dust bowl but people back in the 1920s and 1930s faced that problem.

Then the weather changed around, rain began to fall again, and soon corn grew where years before the ground had been baked solid. Are we in for more troubling weather ahead?

I'm not an alarmist but I think things will continue to change, and some of these changes may be irreversible. Weather has become quite unpredictable. It may become even more so in the years to come.

I’m more curious about future weather patterns than anything else.

Will this affect me? At 71, I doubt seriously it will have a major impact on me except for how the weather will affect my fishing and hunting.

If the weather continues to gradually grow warmer, there will be a greater desire among some fast-buck artists to sell Great Lakes water. If we start selling our water, we will have jumped onto a slippery slope that will dramatically lower water levels. For every change we see, there will probably be a greater impact on our weather patterns.

If South America's rain forests continue to be eliminated at a rapid pace as trees are cut, what will happen then? What will happen if springs start to go dry because water bottlers are taking our water? How long will it take for every human being in this state and this country and this world to be impacted by the consequences of any mistakes made now?

Once the springs that feed our tiny trout streams are sucked dry, where will our trout go? Where will we go?

Man, left to its own greedy devices, will eventually be responsible for despoiling this planet until there is nothing useful left. I won't be around to see it, and perhaps my children will dodge this climatic bullet, but future generations will suffer for the mistakes made by past, present and future generations.

And just think: here we sit griping about the weather. The winds of change are blowing today, and those costly mistakes will one day be the cause of the death of this planet.

It's not a cheery thought but I'll be gone by then, and thankful for what this life has given me. Writing about changes has been a way of life for the past 44 years.

Someone once said: the more things change, the more they remain the same. It's up to people to protect what we have, and move forward in a positive manner, if Planet Earth is to prosper in the future.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors