Scorched earth

“Scorched earth”, Monterey Herald—Submitted March 3, 2022, Not Published

It is tiresome to read newspaper articles about the apocalyptic fear of a scorched earth. Americans are spending billions and wrecking our economy over something they cannot control.

During the ancient Greek and Roman period, worldwide temperatures were 5 degrees hotter than today. In fact, during most of our current interglacial period, the earth was much warmer than now. As most climatologists know, our world has experienced many cold/hot cycles, with much harsher droughts, and heatwaves. More amazingly, even during cold glacial episodes, the atmosphere often carried 10 times the amount of airborne CO2 of today.

Mother Nature does what it wants to do. Humans have little ability to change which way it is going to push us.

—Lawrence Samuels, Carmel