Adapt

Alternative Column: There was an author being interviewed on the radio who was pointing out the overreactions the government makes to events. He was referring to The War On Terror. I was nodding in agreement until he started faulting conservatives for dragging their feet on Climate Change. They are both crises that are not allowed to go to waste.
I have a feeling that people who ignore the news media might agree with me more than those who are glued to CNN or Fox News. Today's establishment might be more tactful than Orwell's Big Brother, but the effect is the same. The constant drumbeat of crisis with government as the only solution, is embraced by left and right alike.
Have you noticed a few windmills lately? They would not exist if it weren't for lobbyists, not unlike that one in a bar in Des Moines, guiding our representatives to hand our hard-earned earnings over to Warren Buffet and similar billionaires with the idea it will change the weather. We accept added costs because they seem so minor. But they add up.
Small business people close their stores because the subsidized wind industry pays better than main street business. Trusted, skilled employees also quit to join the government mandated gravy train. Every Tesla sold comes with a $7,500 taxpayer bonus for poor Elon Musk. It was only part way through last spring when a local repair shop had already fixed 60 small engines damaged by ethanol, another government mandated boondoggle based on flawed science, but profitable for the powerful corn lobby.
We've read of the dire consequences of inaction on climate change but little on the cost of each tiny improvement in climate. And totally ignored is the same factor that made Paul Ehrlich's book, The Population Bomb, just so much rubbish. Ehrlich claimed there would be mass starvation in the 1970s and '80s. What they ignored was that humans adapt.
We are constantly amazed at scientific advances such as cancer patients who miraculously beat what seems like a death sentence. Yet that same amazement is what makes us realize we really know very little. To presume we know everything about what causes this climate that allows life on earth and to presume we can alter man's behavior to overcome these unknown factors is pure arrogance. That's why adaptation is so important.
Although scientists do know the sun is experiencing an unusually rapid cooling trend, I doubt they know it will continue. But to believe a few little creatures on earth can have as much impact on weather as the sun may make a catastrophe worse. If all these government mandates can actually make the world cooler, what if the sun continues to cool as well? Will these supposed 97 percent of scientists find ways to grow food in frozen soil?
The prescription promoted by most people concerned about climate change is more government control. But people free to act with their own wealth constantly proves to direct resources to places where it does the most good. It just doesn't get a lot of press because news organizations have become mere secretaries taking dictation from government officials.
Terrible famines and disease outbreaks occurred in 1316 and 1709. They were caused by cold weather, as was the concern in 1970 when I marched in the first Earth Day protest march. But even worse famines were entirely man-made. They were the famines of Stalin's collectivization program and Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward which resulted in millions of deaths.
Do we really want government to control our destiny?
Any opinions on this column are welcome at 4selfgovernment@gmail.com or through a letter to the editor. The blog is updated almost daily at www.alternativebyfritz.com. Try it. You'll like it.