I live in the mountains of Central America at 4000-feet above sea level. That is just slightly below the level of the clouds, so when a rainstorm passes as it does every day now, the thunder is very loud. It rattles the rafters in the house and the fillings in my teeth. I do enjoy a few loud thunderclaps, but my wife and the cat do not. As I write this, I can see a furry tail sticking out from under the bed.
In Central America, December to April is called “summer.” It does not rain in summer. There is no defined spring, or autumn, just summer, which is hot and dry, or winter, which is hot and wet. The winter I knew it when I lived in Michigan was very different. The two seasons here are MUD or DUST. April to November is known as “The Rainy Season. ” What we call the rainy season does not denote a monsoon season, but there are years that might challenge that assessment.
This year is a very wet winter on the isthmus. The daily rain stands in stark contrast to the North American west that is bone dry and on fire. Our forests here are so wet they couldn’t burn if you tried to light them on fire with a military-grade flame thrower.
Something missing. Strictly speaking, the inhabitants of planet earth, as in you and me, cannot control the weather any more than our prehistoric cousins could, but it goes beyond weather. According to Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev, the earth is a Type Zero civilization. His chart defines a civilization’s level of technological advancement based on how they are able to control energy. Here are the three types:
A Type I civilization, also called a planetary civilization—can use and store all the energy available on its planet.
A Type II civilization also called a stellar civilization—can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system.
A Type III civilization also called a galactic civilization—can control energy at the scale of its entire host galaxy.
We can dispense with the Type II and Type III civilizations right away, but why are we not even a Type I planetary civilization? It is embarrassing to realize that in 2020 we have not even made the first category.
Some insist that we can control the weather, but that technology, if it really exists must be in the hands of an evil cabal that wants to destroy the world by creating hurricanes, droughts, floods, and other such events. I scarcely know how to respond to that, so I will put that notion aside for now. My stance is that if we had the technology that, in my humble opinion we should have, California would not be on fire, and there would not be any flooding in Central America. Should you have some information about weather control, please send it to me at jim@jimsayers.com or enter it in the Leave a Reply box below.
If we look closely at the history of the planet we see that over the centuries, there were times of both hot and cold periods. The record is clear that over millions of years, ice ages alternated with much warmer climate conditions. However, the previous 12,000 years show a dramatic change in the earth’s climate.
Climate and weather are related, but they are not the same. On a given day a location could be very hot, while elsewhere on the same day a different location is very cold. When we try to use weather as a way to judge climate we end up like the participants in the story of the five blind men examining the Elephant. Each example is correct, but nobody has addressed the entire issue.
Among the worldwide issues, the climate debate has been center stage for years. Only the Coronavirus has moved it from the spotlight. There does seem to be Global Warming taking place, but there is also evidence for Global Cooling. Both opposing points of view have credible scientific spokespersons, so like the heavy rain outside my window, the climate debate also rages on. People tend to line up on one side or another and go to great lengths to defend their position.
My reason for posting this is not to engage in the Global Warming debate but rather to draw attention to the sorry state of our lack of technological development regarding the ability to control the weather. Year after year I watch California go up in flames while rain is abundant here. In my opinion that is a very sad situation.
I am a technology junkie, but I find it confusing when people tell me that technologically speaking, we are a highly advanced civilization when it is clearly evident that we have no more control over the weather than our ancestors did. I would like to live long enough to see that situation change.
I will say more about this , but now if you will excuse me, I must go comfort the cat.
–Jim