Dear Editor,

Tocqueville was astounded by American exceptionalism, which he witnessed on a tour in the early 1830s. Since Jan. 20, 2021, it only got better. Not only have I been able to identify as a furry; the most in demand male lingerie model on the Milan runways; the highest paid exotic dancer; a doctor (and I follow the Science, not Fauci’s science) and now, at long last. I am identifying as a weatherman.

The climate alarmists who have published in The Times Leader have focused on “…the climate crisis has arrived and is changing our lives” (Oct. 1, 2023). Everything is about acting “now,” just like Veruca Salt. These reactionaries only see changes within their lifetimes. If they would have attended private schools, they would have had a broader understanding of the passage of Time because Time does pass when one studies the passage of Time.

The Greta acolytes constantly remind us about global temperatures rising when it’s summertime … when it’s supposed to be hot. Other than near volcanoes, where are the oceans boiling?

In Martin’s Twilight of the Mammoths, he writes: “Clovis hunters clearly hunted bison at Murray Springs and other sites in the West, leaving their points with the bones. Overall, there are far more associations of human hunters with bison than with mammoths or mastodons” (154).

So if human activity causes today’s existential global warming, how did only a few bison barbecues, spread out over a few centuries, cause the vast northern hemisphere’s Ice Age to come to a sudden end? With the amount of ash pumped into the atmosphere after the Mt. Vesuvius eruption, how did the Roman Empire and the Holy See continue on for hundreds of more years? Why does the Wheeling Island Flood Memorial reveal that most floods, starting in 1762 (39.2 feet), resulted from spring snow melts? We have more documentation from esteemed local historian Roger Pickenpaugh.

In his River on a Rampage, he chronicles the start of the haunting 1936 Ohio River flood: “Over the New England and Middle Atlantic States, for example, precipitation between March 9 and March 21 averaged eight inches. These rains followed a winter of heavy snowfalls, and thanks to cold temperatures during the winter of 1935-1936, much of that snow was still on the ground as the rains began” (pg. 1).

Let’s not forget the Dust Bowl from earlier that decade and snow on this year’s Halloween.

In closing, as a local weatherman identifier, why don’t the greenies talk about the highly unusual Arctic blast we had last Christmas? The groundhog was off by several weeks for his prediction of the arrival of this year’s spring.

An examination of longer periods of time shows uncontrollable, natural cycles, not global warming started only recently, and China’s pollution doesn’t count. Only Americans need to give up gas stoves and can only purchase really expensive batteries made with minerals quarried from China?

After missing two years of education because of failed Covid policies, we don’t need students missing more school because electric school buses barely work over the winter. Wake up to the existential agenda.

Mark Eddy

Wheeling