Climate is cyclical

Re: “Congress takes aim at climate change in massive relief bill” (Dec. 22):

It is disturbing that the government is eventually going to waste billions of dollars on trying to alter the weather. This is a bit like a VW Bug trying to stop a train. Even if one believes that greenhouse gases have some effect on the weather, nature is going to have its way.

It was about 1,000 years ago that an island in the north Atlantic was named Greenland because it had a thriving agriculture industry. Eventually the Norse left because of the onset of the Little Ice Age. This cycle has been repeated, with larger variations for many millions of years. The bottom line is that we really don’t know what the future holds; some say it will continue to get warmer while others argue that we are headed for another little ice age.

This ambiguity makes it difficult for Man to decide what to do. If banking on increased temperature, then we need to be spending our money on mitigation of rising ocean levels. While if colder, we need to consider moving further south. In the past man has survived both scenarios.

Phil Thayer

Spokane