Have you ever heard of Jerry Nadler? He is Chairman of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, and in between his 24/7 efforts to impeach President Trump he found time this past week to stand in front of the Capitol in D.C. and address climate strike protesters, mostly young people (some VERY young) who had been allowed to skip school in order to assemble to demand that climate change measures be implemented immediately. Nadler presented some dire predictions about what is going to happen if we don't confront this issue.

He said, "Sea levels are rising, it'll cost us $100 Billion to relocate, and two million people will die in Bangladesh in India." He continued, "Now that's bad, but it's much worse than that." He went on to say that he had a little grand daughter and that when he looks at her he gets terrified because he doesn't know if human life will survive much longer. He said, "We may face, the climate scientists tell us, the sixth mass extinction in the history of the globe."

And then he said something that revealed what this gathering was really all about. He said, "We have to start the pressure campaign to get rid of those ignoramuses in the Senate, and the ignoramus-in-chief in the White House." This is scary, folks, not because of the so-called climate change hysteria, but that someone in such a powerful position in our government could speak these largely unverified alarmist statements before an obviously biased audience and be taken seriously by much of the "main stream" media as well as by most of his associates in Congress.

And what is his "solution" to climate change? The Green New Deal, which would, among other things, take away our cars, trains, planes, gas, and most of the other things that matter to us, particularly our FREEDOM. I am sure that most of us want to do whatever we can to keep this planet as environmentally sound as possible, and, in fact, our country is the world's leader in that effort.

Actually, Nadler's comments about the earth sound like what life would be like under Socialism (Venezuela, Cuba, etc.), resulting in federal control, not of the climate, but of the people. In fact, we can't "control" the climate. It's cyclic and has been going on for thousands of years. But this "sky is falling" mentality, as promoted in such journals as Al Gore's book, "An Inconvenient Truth", is being promoted aggressively, and if not combated, could do enormous, irreparable harm to our country. Most of us have lived through warnings about Global Warming, then Global Cooling, and now Climate Change.

These people have been consistently wrong in their dire predictions, such as our being told in 1980 that New York City would be underwater by 2000. Yet here we are, in 2019, and there's more ice in New York City than ever before and the polar bears are doing just fine. We all want clean air and clean water, and our country, through modern technology and effort, has provided that to us. But we really can't do much to control the weather. It is sheer arrogance to believe that mankind has caused the weather, or that mankind can change it. That power comes from Somebody bigger than you and I.

Now for a little humor: George goes to the doctor and gets some very bad news, which is that he has only 6 weeks to live. He asks the doctor, "What can I do to live at least a little longer?" Then the exchange went like this: Doctor: "Do you eat greasy and fried foods?" George: "Yes." Doctor: "Stop doing that." George: "I will." Doctor: "Do you drink sodas and eat Fast Food?" George: "Yes." " Doctor: "Stop doing that." Doctor: "Do you stay up late?" George: "Yes." Doctor: "Stop doing that." Doctor: "Do you smoke and drink?" George: "Yes." Doctor: "Stop doing that."

Finally, George says, "OK Doctor, if I do all the things you told me to do, how much longer will I live?" The Doctor replied, "You'll still live only 6 weeks, but it will seem like 6 years!”

Have a wonderful day!

The views of columnists are not necessarily those of Neuse News.