The Plainsman Press - South Plains College

Dear Editor;

In the October 29th edition of the “Plainsman Press” there was an article by Robert Stone, “Global Warming Failing to Heat up Interest.” I feel that this must be responded to so that some facts about this issue can be presented. I do know that the people who believe in man made global warming are getting frustrated because most people do not buy into this myth. Let me first state that I do believe that the climate on this world is changing. In fact it has been in a state of change every since it was first created and has done nothing but change from the very start.

The people that buy into the idea that man is causing global warming look at the climate that we currently have and feel that this is the way that it has always been and that it should always be that way. Who’s to say what is normal, natural and ideal. This crowd has a tendency to blame everything that happens on global warming. If we have a drought some place then it is the result of global warming. If we have too much rain then it is the result of global warming. The fact is we have had droughts and floods throughout history. After hurricane Katrina the global warming crowd began stating that we were going to see more and more massive hurricanes just like Katrina. The fact is that for the past 2 years the number of named storms has been very low, well under what has been predicted. Fact: hurricanes go in cycles of about 40 years where for several years you will have very strong storms and then they decrease in both strength and number. Katrina was not the first category 5 hurricane that has ever happened and yet you would think listening to global warming crowd that it was the first one we have ever had and it is all mankind’s fault.

In the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” our former Vice President, Al Gore Jr., uses the word “If.” “If we have an increase of five degrees, if Greenland broke up and melted…if this were to go, sea level word wide would go up 20 feet.” Mario Lewis, Ph.D., government policy analyst stated, “Where he’s misleading is that he gives the impression that this is something that is likely to happen. The likelihood of this is next to nil.” David Legates, Ph.D., Climatologist, University of Delaware says “The IPCC report is that the upper limit of sea level rise by the year 2100 is going to be about 23 inches.” Chris Horner is the author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming.” He stated “That’s why Al Gore makes up 20 feet. The truth isn’t scary.” Mr. Gore makes these kinds of authoritative statements and yet has absolutely no formal training in this area. It is interesting to note that recently a British Judge ruled that before any school children in Great Britain can be shown this movie that a disclaimer has to be given stating that most of the information in this movie is not factually correct.

The main mantra that the global warming activists have been using is that it is the CO-2 concentrations in the atmosphere that is causing the problem. As people live their lives using modern technology we produce CO-2 and therefore we are causing global warming. Chris Horner states “The scientific literature is fairly clear, fairly uniform. Temperatures go up; then CO-2 concentrations go up. CO-2 does not drive temperature.”

Recently Alexander Cockburn in “The Nation” wrote an article entitled “Is Global Warming a Sin?” A great deal of the information that Mr. Cockburn uses comes from Martin Hertzberg, Ph.D. who is a retired meteorologist and is trained in chemistry and physics and spent most of his career as a combustion research scientist. In this article Hertzberg is quoted as saying: “the CO2 content of the atmosphere has increased about 21% percent in the past century. The world has also been getting just a little warmer. The not very reliable data on the world’s average temperature show about a 0.5 degree Celsius increase between 1880 and 1980, and still rising. But is CO-2, at 380 ppm in the atmosphere playing a significant role in retaining the 94% of solar radiation that the atmosphere absorbs, as against water vapor, also a powerful heat absorber, whose content in a humid tropical atmosphere can be a high as 20,000 ppm? Water in the form of oceans, snow, ice cover, clouds and vapor is overwhelming in the radiative and energy balance between the earth and the sun. …Carbon dioxide and the greenhouse gases are, by comparison, the equivalent of a few farts in a hurricane. Water is exactly that component of the Earth’s heat balance that the global warming computer models fail to account for.”

Dr. Roy Spencer, principal research scientist for the University of Alabama in Huntsville, explains that scientist “don’t even model precipitation or water in any form because they can’t.” As Dr. Spencer explains, “it is impossible to know how much precipitation occurs because we are not everywhere it happens. The amount of carbon dioxide that we are creating is nothing compared to what the complexity of this creation – i.e., nature – is putting into the atmosphere each and every day.” Meteorologist Augie Auer recently told the annual meeting of Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers in Ashburton, New Zealand “Climate change will be considered a joke in five years time. Man’s contribution to the greenhouse gases is so small we couldn’t change the climate if we tried. We’re all going to survive this. A combination of misinterpreted and misguided science, media hype, and political spin has created the current hysteria and it is time to put a stop to it.”

Recently Laurie David, who is the wife of the producer of Al Gore’s movie, co-authored a book on global warming for children “Down to Earth Guide to Global Warming.” This book was published by Scholastic and in the book is a chart showing CO-2 levels and the rise in temperature. The chart was mislabeled and showed the rise in CO-2 levels proceed the rise in temperature. This “mistake” was caught and shown to Scholastic who issued a statement that yes the chart was mislabeled, but the book was never corrected.

The climate on the Earth is more complex than we will ever be able to understand. The Earth is not sick; it is not running a fever caused by man. In the middle ages the Earth went through a warming period (long before industrialization) and then went into what is known as the “little ice age” which lasted for about 500 years. The Earth then came out of that period in a very short time span and has been getting slightly warmer every since. The change has a great deal to do with solar activity and the cycles of the sun not the idea of “human beings burned up massive amounts of ‘stored sun’ in the form of coal, oil and natural gas…” Recently an article from NewScientist.com stated that scientist have learned that about 500 years ago a giant solar flair may have shredded Earth’s ozone layer. In a nut shell what this article is saying is that in 5 minutes the sun did more damage to the Earth’s atmosphere than man has done in over 1,000 years. People in the global warming crowd want to paint a picture that the Earth is sick and only by following what they say can it be saved. They believe that if you disagree with them then you want dirty air and dirty water and don’t care about the environment. I am of the opinion that as individuals and as a human race we should clean up our messes and that we should never be careless about our environment. However, to try and tell me that by just living my life and driving my car I am destroying the Earth, sorry, not buying it. Recommended reading: “The Sky is not Falling: why it’s ok to chill about global Warming” by Holly Fretwell, Adjunct Professor, Montana State University.

Dennis Anderson

Dear Editor,

I am responding to a pair of articles in the October 15^th edition of the Plainsman Press: “College experience becoming constricted” by Courtney Ortega & “College expectations overwhelming for some” by Sawyer Thomas. I feel it is important to respond to these articles, not because of the content of the articles, but the mindset that underlies the writing.

The message behind the message that I address in this letter is that of complaint in the system, and the hope that the system will change to accommodate the needs and desires of the student. If there were fundamental flaws, discriminatory practices against certain groups of students, or other heinous problems I could see the need for changes to the system. In this case, students have been passing though higher education for hundreds of years with the same, if not more stringent requirements. College is a time to separate, not those who can from those who cannot, but those that will from those who will not.

If everyone had a degree it would mean as little in the job market as a high school diploma. Anything that is easy is worthless; the best things in life are competed for, not bestowed. You either make the sacrifices to have it or you don’t. Only when you have had to fight or sacrifice for something does it acquire worth. There is no dishonor in settling for a life that you want, but to complain about it only brings dishonor to yourself and draws attention to your unwillingness to do what it takes to make things happen.

“The general rule is that for every college hour you take you are supposed to study at least two hours for that class. Who has that kind of time?” Indeed, who does? Everyone has that kind of time, because everyone has exactly 24 hours in a day; no more, no less. Some people accomplish far more than others with the exact same time. How do they do it? Think of those older students that are scattered among you in your classes. How many of them have jobs and / or children that they have to pick up from school or daycare, help them with their homework, cook, clean house, and get the kids to bed before starting their own work. Many of them do not have the luxury of a spouse to help out with everything that needs to be done.

It is a question, not of what is provided to you, but of how you set your priorities and manage your life. Do you spend a lot of time thinking about what to do? Do you put things off until they absolutely have to be done? How much TV do you watch in a week? Do this for me before you begin to complain that college is putting the squeeze on you.

Sit down and figure up how much dead time you have in a typical week: Sleeping, watching TV, driving around, talking on the phone, going out, partying, spending time with a girlfriend/boyfriend… etc. The reason I call it dead time, is that it is spent without investment. This time is for your own benefit in the present, it does nothing for your future.

Consider also your life balance. I worked a full-time night shift job and went to school full time during the day while I was here at South Plains. The result was a drain on my health, my grades were in the toilet, and I absolutely dreaded going to work. (Consequently I re-organized after a semester of this.) There comes a time for choices and sacrifices. If you have to work full time then you probably will need to go to school part time and graduate in six to ten years for a four year degree. If part time school is not an option for you, then you will have to make cuts elsewhere: your work schedule, love life, family time, friends, down time, your spending habits, etc. Remember, nothing worth having or achieving comes without sacrifice. Find the cuts and make them without excuse or lament.

Your life is your business. It is completely in your hands. In order to achieve a goal you have to look at what you are capable of doing, prioritize things in your life, and be willing to give up what is less important to achieve the more important. Some classes will be more demanding than others. The 2:1 rule will not apply to courses such as Anatomy and Physiology, where the study requirements can be double what your average college course will demand. Know what it is going to take by talking to people and finding out what it takes to be successful.

Think of the Olympic-class athlete and what they have to sacrifice to train for that one moment of glory. Years of training, restricted diets, and being away from family, friends, and a great deal of entertainment are gladly sacrificed for an opportunity for the gold medal, not necessarily a guarantee of even placing on the medal stand. They know the meaning of sacrifice. They know their priorities. They know what it means to focus on what is important in order to make their dreams happen.

Too many students I have seen and spoken to act as if their education is another job they have to do. To them it is a hoop they have to jump through, knowing if they clear all the obstacles they will get a degree in the end. With this mentality school will never be fun, challenging, invigorating, or exciting. You will never develop the love for learning it takes to really get your money’s worth from a college education. Minimum effort is not really effort. Learn to love to learn.

Successful minds are those that are curious and creative. They realize that an education is a lifelong pursuit that continues as long as there is something else out there to learn. It is a pursuit that goes far beyond the boundaries of a formal education. What is it that the average person has free access to but does not have time to visit, and it exists in almost every mansion built? The answer is a library. The average person doesn’t read because they don’t have time, but you ask any successful person what they are reading right now and they can tell you. People who move forward know that education is a passion that once lit can never be quenched; only fed. They give up frivolities to pursue things that are truly important to them and their dreams.

The power to make your dreams happen resides solely in your hands. Your professors do not assign grades, you earn them. Your time spent wisely or poorly is completely under your control. How much you take on in your life responsibilities is completely and utterly your call. Every resource at the college is at your disposal from the library to the computer lab, advising to tutoring. You have to take charge of your life, and be in control. Talk to people, research your options, and know what the outcome will be of a decision before you make it.

All of this takes a level of maturity that you may or may not have taken on yet. I believe that all of you are capable of doing this or I would not bother writing this response. South Plains College employees work very hard to offer help to anyone with the courage and desire to seek it.

Brandon Awbrey
Counselor & HUDV instructor