I checked with one of my favorite council members concerning meeting last Monday and was assured that the McCook City Council meeting was on. Usually the council does not meet on the 5th Monday of the month but this being a new council and a new city manager I figured the rules had probably changed. No the council didn't meet, the Councilman was just eager because she likes the job so much and I won't even mention her name!

Time has proven that my advice to let the snow lie where it fell on the streets and let the sun melt it away wasn't a very good recommendation at all. For once we are having winter like we haven't seen in a long time. The melting technique isn't working very well but the City Street Crews have given yeoman effort to removing slush, clearing the piles that restrict visibility and improving the surface when they can. A little global warming sure would be a help.

At present a whole raft of self-styled climate "experts" are meeting in Paris to put a stop to global warming. They have convinced themselves that the warming is a man-made problem and only they can give us guidance on how to stop it. Never mind that their guidance will be expensive, they will of course be in charge, and their fixes if implemented will make no difference in what happens to the global temperature. It is a perfect venue for an "activist" such as former vice president Al Gore.

Yes I am convinced that the earth's climate is presently in a warming trend, a cycle of heating and cooling that climatologists have documented happening about every 1,500 years. In the history of the earth man has not caused nor prevented the natural heating or cooling cycle from occurring and I don't believe it is happening now.

To put the matter in perspective, take the total area of the earth's surface and divide that number by the present population. You will find that each living person will "own" about one square mile of surface area. The atmosphere is about twenty miles deep but let us be concerned with only one mile so each person now has a cubic mile of atmosphere for which to be responsible. How are you going to pollute, heat, or cool your cubic mile, and do it all day every day? You are not likely to make a bit of difference!

In my opinion it would be better for clear-thinkers to plan how to adjust for a rising earth's temperature so that we might adapt to the natural climate cycle that is going to happen anyhow. For example what will be the long term rainfall prediction for this area? Will the drought continue or will agriculture as we know it become impossible? Is it prudent to continue to invest in expensive infrastructure like a new water system or paving new roads? People will continue to eat; where we will grow our food in a hotter, drier place? Maybe north to Canada will be the new Corn Belt. Is now the time to educate our grandchildren so that can make a living away from agriculture? 

For a start, Al Gore and his lackeys would like to take away our automobiles and commercial fertilizer. If that happens, this area of the country will die a rapid and needless death. We need to keep an eye on what happens in Paris.

That is the way I see it.

-- A former McCook City Council member and Red Willow County Commissioner, Trail provides this column for no compensation. As with all signed opinion columns, the views expressed are the writer's alone.