Baird Helgeson of The Tampa Tribune writes,
“Was Tropical Storm Alberto an anomaly or an ominous
sign of storms to come? The answer is: neither. ‘Alberto
is a very classic June tropical storm,’ said Chris
Landsea, science and operations officer at the National
Hurricane Center in Miami. Don't expect Alberto to
reveal much about what to expect the rest of the
hurricane season, experts said.”
Contrast this with the
bluster from former president Clinton who weighed in on
Alberto—“It is now generally
recognized that while Al Gore and I were ridiculed, we
were right about global warming. It's a serious problem.
It's going to lead to more hurricanes.”—and you have all
the makings of one huge, tropical hot-air mass.
It’d be nice to think that Republican
control of Congress and The White House extended to the
weather. But control of the weather is reserved for one
person only.
The Gospel writer Mark tells us about a boat
trip the disciples made across the Sea of Galilee. It
must have been a quiet start to the ride because Jesus,
who was with them, had fallen asleep in the stern. But
suddenly a storm blew in and the boat was in danger of
capsizing. The disciples, fearing for their lives woke
up Jesus, who stood calmly and “rebuked the wind, and
said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased
and there was a great calm.”
It’s a good thing that God is in ultimate
control of both the weather and the climate on planet
earth. Man can’t even forecast beyond five days let
alone several months or years.
It was less than two months ago that
meteorologists were warning us here in New Jersey that
conditions were coming together for a drought. But the
weather had other ideas and since then, almost ten
inches of rain have fallen, erasing all fears of a water
shortage for this summer.
And how many of you had to turn the heat on
in your house, or build a fire in the fireplace—albeit
briefly—during May or early June? Global warming?—Not
here in the Northeast at least.
Wild weather is not necessarily a portent of
a global climate shift. It makes for spectacular
headlines. But even in the case of Alberto, the headline
for this storm was that the rain did more good than harm
in drought and wildfire-ravaged Florida where a good
soaking was an answer to prayer.
As usual, the only fear we should have of
hot air is from politicians when they open their mouths
and attempt to opine on matters best left to the
experts.
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