Climate Lynx

I am a huge proponent of well-managed forests and am an avid reader of Bill Cook’s Column. His column about the supremacy of the paper towel, while written with good intention, pushed the use of paper towels to new sacred heights. Making me think, “Are there paper towels in heaven?” I like Mr. Cook’s column because it forces me to think. How do we analyze our lifestyles to be responsible?   I agree with Mr. Cook. The use of paper towels in the big picture of struggling to save the planet is tiny. If we cannot wean ourselves off fossil fuels, we need not worry about paper towel use. But that will not stop me from having a little fun with paper towels and our long wiping history. The “wiper”, at one time, was a worker who went around machines cleaning moving parts of dirt and excess oil. Steam locomotives, ship engine rooms and the Quincy mine Nordberg engine employed workers who made sure machines were cleaned and oiled. Today, the wiper is still employed on the big Military S...

I just read the US Army War College report on climate change. It starts like this, “Current conversations about climate change and its impacts are often rancorous and politically charged. As an organization that is, by law, non-partisan, the Department of Defense (DoD) is precariously unprepared for the national security implications of climate change-induced global security challenges.” The report is 50 pages long and chock full of information guaranteed to frighten the bee-gees-us out of you. It can, at times, be dull.   But there are enough shockers to keep you wide awake.   There is even relevant comic relief about human nature.   In my mind it is the key to why there is any disagreement at all. Here it is:   In Frank Tashlin’s classic children’s book, “ The Bear That Wasn’t ”, a bear awakes from hibernation and, exiting his cave, finds himself in a huge factory that has been built over his forest home. Encountering a foreman, the bear is told to get back t...

I grew up in Minnesota to a Canadian father. In his 70s he would join us in puck shooting contests downstairs at my brother’s home. It was a contest between my dad, my brother, and my brothers two hockey playing sons and me. Grandpa beat us all. When my dad passed, his hockey stick was at his funeral. I decided it should accompany him on his journey, so I made sure his stick was with him as they slid him into the crematorium. I could not stomach the idea of my dad missing a pickup game enroute. My whole family felt this was appropriate. When the climate scientists used the term hockey stick to describe something going on with the earth’s climate, I did not know enough about global warming to be scientifically skeptical. I was just wondering if they had shown the proper respect. If you recall, the graph that documents the earth’s average temperature was, and still often is, compared to a hockey stick. If you lay a hockey stick on the ground with the blade sticking up, it represe...

Unlike the pure science of last week, this week I would like you to join me and ponder our future if we do nothing about climate change by comparing our fate with the arctic fox.   What differentiates us from the animal kingdom? There is a lot. For brevity, I will focus on our brain. And simplifying more, let’s look at the brain’s two major regions.   First, the instinctual brain governs our fight or flight reflex, is the more ancient brain which thinks quickly, and is also the more emotional portion of our grey matter. The second region is what I will refer to as the contemplative. It differentiates us from the animals as it allows us to think through options before we act. We can make decisions not just with the present in mind but in generational time frames of responsibility.   It allows us to anticipate problems, work in symbols, communicate well, and transform and protect our habitat. It is slower because it takes time to “hash things out”.   My goal is...