The water is just a little warmer. It just is. But how much of a difference does it really make? And whose fault is it anyway?

Climate change is absolutely happening. Statistically, it is undeniable. Look at the stats for cities like Las Vegas, Charlotte, Washington DC, etc, and there is a definite rise in temperature, especially in winter and on overnight lows, over the last 72-125 years. It is something you cannot unsee. You cannot pretend it is NOT there and still be intellectually honest. This is the case with almost every major metropolitan area in America.

Then what you see with your own eyes. The winters of the 1970s and 1990s were epic. Even the early 2000s. Over the last 10 years, the winters overall have not been as bad. Warmer with less snow in general. But there are exceptions. In February 2015, the Northeast US went through the coldest and one of the snowiest months ever in recorded history. Beat out 1934, 1966, 1977, 1979, 1994, and 2004. Every last record. With the exception of February 2007, it was the snowiest on record as well. To live through that month, which I did, was absolutely BRUTAL.

The one thing that I will say about the climate, as a Meteorologist with 25 years of experience speaking, is that the climate is definitely trending more to the extremes. Especially with precipitation events. Flooding was something the Northeast US saw from time to time growing up in the 1980s and 1990s but it wasn’t show-stopping epic. Since 2000, so many show-stopping devastating events. In South Carolina where I live currently, we’ve had several “one thousand year events” for rainfall since 2000. Out in the western US since 2000, the last 20+ years have been dry. Epically dry. Worst drought not just in a decade or in a century… but the worst seen within our records. Experts estimate it’s the worst in 1,200 years. How they know that with absolute certainty is beyond me. We were not here then.

OK, so the weather is becoming more extreme. I get it. So it’s my fault because I drive an SUV right? Not really. In future articles I will dive more into the specific numbers as to why the “climate crisis” as many on the left make it out to be, is more hogwash than anything else. It will probably substantiate the fact that climate change is near the bottom of overall concerns on most voter lists of priorities.

The hypocrisy is next. There has been so much of it from the left. Jetting around on private jets to tell the rest of us peons to pay more for gas, drive less, and go to renewable resources. While they, the elites, use up whatever they want. This hypocrisy, by far, is one of the biggest things taking away from the actual arguments of climate change that have at least a little merit to them. Because the climate is changing. Whether you believe in a creationist 6,000-year time frame or an evolutionist 4+ billion year time frame, the bottom line is, that it’s only back to the late 1800s we can go to get reliable accurate observation information on weather. We are looking at slivers of time and quite honestly, making mountains out of anthills. How big of a difference does 1-2 degrees F, or even 1-2 degrees C over a century make? Does it make the land inhospitable? I argue no just based on what I see with my own eyes. What about air pollution? In cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chattanooga, TN, the air pollution 40-60 years ago was far worse than it is today. The air quality in many cities is measurably better. But do we look at those trends? Do we study them? This is another area I will dive into in future articles.

So then, the final two questions, which I’ll leave this article with for now. Question one: It’s a scientific FACT that predicting the weather becomes more difficult the farther out in time that you go. Day 1 is 95% accurate. It drops to 50% at 7 days. I’m guessing 25-30% at 14 days. But yet, those that scream “climate crisis” and “climate change” and “do something” are 100% sure we are doing it and it’s 100% our fault. AT WHAT POINT IN TIME, DOES ACCURACY FOR WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN TO STOP DECREASING, AND START INCREASING IN CERTAINTY THE FARTHER OUT IN TIME WE GO UNTIL IT REACHES 100%? What graphs and charts and proven scientific data can back this up? Climate hacks: I’ll be waiting on this one. It should be fun to see what they come up with.

Question 2: Where is GOD in all of this? A sizeable portion of the population still believes in and worships God and our savior Jesus Christ. In fact, I’m about to head out to church. What about this? What’s God’s role in climate change? Is there one? Most who scream “climate crisis” do not believe in God and put us as the main culprits, above God, or there is no God in their religion. But for those of us who believe in God, where does that leave us?

That’s all we need is a few volcanoes to go off and the temperature rises will be wiped out. Plus some. That is a fact in recorded history. 1816 anyone??? 1883? So perhaps instead of saying “the science is settled” (which science is NEVER settled), we should take a more open look at climate change, acknowledge what we know, question everything else, and continue on our scientific mission to learn more every day???

At the end of the day, the bottom line is I stand on the climate is changing. It always has been changing. It always will be. How much it’s changing and what we can do about it are unknown. I absolutely do not believe it’s my fault or anyone’s fault, and I do not agree with the policies of this administration in dealing with it. Period.

I firmly believe in the mitigation of risk when it comes to building, rebuilding, and assessing risks from more extreme climate events. You can’t stop them. You can’t hope to contain them. But you can have your buildings and development in areas not as susceptible to climate change.

Maybe the first place we should start is with how far above sea level Obama’s mansion in Martha’s Vineyard is. That metric will give us a truer picture of just how much a threat climate change really is.