Weather

Remember Howdy Doody? He had an Indian Princess on his show named,Princess Summer-fall-winter-spring.Even little three and four year olds could name the four seasons, unbeknownest to them, they had been taught. It may have been a few years later that they became fully aware of the meaning of those words.

We all learned the seasons and learned what to expect when the seasons change from one to another. We are now in the early days of Fall and we would expect a cooling down of the temperature. At first the days continue to be reasonably warm since we live in the North Temperate Zone, the average high is somewhere between the sixties and seventies during the day and dropping down to temps between fifty and sixty at night. The days are shorter. In December when winter arrives, we expect it to become colder and colder as we go into January and February, then in March Spring blows in and we experience both warm and cold days and cold nights as we approach Summer. Summer brings extremely hot days and nights!We all pretty much know the drill. Put the heavy clothes away and get out the light weight clothes. However, we can't predict with any accuracy what Fall will bring this year or of what Winter will be like. We have had some disagreeable, even harmful atmospheric conditions in the last few years that have been anomalous. We had a 'freak' mid-western hurricane whose straight line winds wreaked havoc with trees,some structures and thousands of power lines. Many of us went for days without power. It took the city about six or eight months to remove the fallen trees, branches,and other debris from the curbs of the city. Trees that had been standing for more than half a century were torn from the ground. In the following season we had a devestating ice storm that felled many more trees and more power lines and small shrubs and so on. We have had floods in places that have never experienced floods before. This past summer we had so many days in the 90's that we came to expect it. We had days of 90 degree weather in May, for Pete's sake.

The weather has become a 'bone of contention' At first when changes were noticed the meteorologists (some of them) blamed it on El Nino. The local weather was analyzed and compaired to recorded conditions. But eventually the scientists and others took it a few steps further and noticed changes throughout the world and realized it was a global problem. The Polar Ice Cap, is melting, lakes are drying up, even the largest bodies of water have shrunken or whatever its called. They have accumulated a lot of evidence that has convinced them that it is not a cyclical event; they are thinking that it could be anthropogenic. There is undisputed proof that the ozone layer has thinned.

If you can believe this, there are some that have turned the discussion of this anomoly into a political issue! Remarkable!

The Readers that I taught out of in the classroom for many years had many stories about the Indian Tribes and their culture. I'm sure some of you may remember the theme that was often presented in those stories. The Indians taught their young, from the very beginning of life, the importance of taking care of the earth so that the generations that came after them could enjoy the same gifts that they had. The responsibility of the Indians was to leave the Earth as rich as they found it.

I could go on here for a week but I am not informed enough to give any advice as to how to reverse some of the damage but I do know that tearing off the tops of mountains, burning fosil fuels, using aerosol sprays, dumping trash in the rivers and creeks,and ravaging the Rain Forest,etc. are harmful and PERHAPs contribute to(gasp)Global Warming.

I joked with Andrea about perhaps having a pool party on Christmas Eve for the family get together. Sounds absurd but who knows what the temperature will be. Just last month it was 102 degrees here one day and two days later it was 62 degrees. Whoes to say it won't be 85 on Christmas Eve?

Hey you guys, quit poking holes in the Ozone! Ciao

*anthropogenic means, man made.