A Letter to My Granddaughter

Dear Johnnie Lynne…Brandy mentioned that you were worried about Global Warming. I would like to put your little mind at rest a bit.

You wouldn’t know this, but in the late 1980’s there was a much publicized book entitled “The Coming Ice Age”. It was written based on scientific facts and studies, and for a few brief years had everyone preparing to be suddenly thrown into an Arctic lifestyle.

Crops would be impossible in areas now farmed, some animals would become extinct; certain cities would be uninhabitable, and life would change dramatically.

I don’t even remember what happened to all that, but it died out. Then scientists began to discover the problems with the Ozone layer, they began to put 2 and 2 together and now we have this incredibly frightening hypothesis being promulgated in all areas…especially in academia…so that little kids don’t have any other thing to base their thoughts on, regarding climate change.

I predict that this will “blow over” (that’s a pun) in a few years or a couple of decades at most. Something else seemingly scary, will take its place.

Many other scientists are saying these other things already: Global Warming comes in cycles. The earth has had periods of warming and cooling since the onset of time. The Ozone Layer has been decreasing for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It is an on-going process. We are in a very warm climatic period right now. (One might also notice that we have just had one of the most severely cold winters on record in many parts of the world.)

We constantly hear about air pollution. Johnnie, even I can remember when air pollution was a hundred times worse than it is now. The main thing we have polluting the air today is gasoline emission. A hundred years ago, all homes were heated by coal and wood burning fires. All factories around the world belched out black smoke and soot from tall smokestacks in abundance. Large cities were places where many people developed lung disease. They had places called “sanitariums” where they would isolate people to treat their lung conditions. Many people moved to places like Arizona, New Mexico…not just to retire…but in order to breathe clean air.

When I was a kid, we burned all our autumn leaves in bonfires in the street (and it was great fun, by the way.) But it made a lotta (good smelling) smoke in the fall. This is prohibited by law now.

When we first moved into the Los Angeles area, the DAILY smog (some days worse than others) was so thick and odorous that you couldn’t see the surrounding mountains when you got within about a hundred miles outside of L.A. On the worst days, (and few were good days…only when the winds were blowing) kids could not play outside. Even at school. The smog would burn your eyes and nose and make you cough.

Since then, we have developed excellent legislation against excessive exhaust emissions. Coal, oil, and wood burning fuels (among others, kerosene, etc.) have been replaced by hydroelectricity; solar generators and clean energy producing systems. The air in our cities is a thousand times better. Large cities such as London, Pittsburgh, Paris …and many others…are a far better place to live than they were a century ago.

We have problems with our trash and rubbish disposal sites, which need improvement. And we are working on all these. But a hundred years ago, people just either burned their own trash or at times threw it out into the streets. Some towns would have it carried off to a “city dump” where it piled up out in the countryside somewhere. Now we have “landfills” and cover them with good topsoil.

So as a matter of fact, things are much better; not worse. But some folk have an agenda. Sometimes it is a political agenda; sometimes a financial agenda. And for some, it is an ideology.

The bottom line is this. All your life, there will be one big scary thing after another. Do you remember the Y2K scare? (Well, probably not. You were about five years old then.)

All the computers in the world were supposed to malfunction because they supposedly did not go beyond the year 1999 in their programming. They would not work correctly when the year 2000 rolled around, and the whole world held its collective breath to see what would happen at the stroke of midnight….even fearing that airplanes (which run by computers) were going to crash. At first, I thought it was a joke, but when so many people took it seriously; started stockpiling food, batteries and other necessary things; ministers started preaching to their congregations to be prepared…. on and on…. we all got a bit caught up in it.

Nothing happened. NOTHING.

Just always remember: Although we see so much evil and craziness, ultimately God has never let go of the controls of the universe. There is a verse in the Bible that says that He made all things and by Him all things are (still) held together. He is that undiscoverable “energy” that holds all the molecules and atoms of this world together to keep it from flying apart. And He will keep the earth’s ecology balanced, until He is ready to let go. And when that happens, I don’t want to be here anyway. There will be a better place to be.

Don’t be scared. My step dad would have said, “Marcia, this is just a ripple in the stream.” And I am sure he would have been right.