New Yorkers and global warming

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

My wife and I like to go to Manhattan a couple of times as year. In fact, we have an upcoming trip in early December. It is a great place to visit as a tourist, but some of the residents are more than I can take.

New Yorkers in particular think the world revolves around them.

Now that they have been clobbered by Hurricane Sandy, it will be interesting to see how long it takes before this disaster stops dominating the news. After all, all the major broadcast and cable news organizations have either their headquarters or a significant outpost within about a half-mile radius circle in mid-town Manhattan.

Governor Cuomo is saying the federal government (that is you and me and any money we can borrow from the Chinese) should pay the whole bill.

Why?

Despite the disaster, the human pathos, and any contribution I might choose to make voluntarily to help out these folks, why is it the federal government’s job to bail out people who made poor decisions as to where to live?

I had the same question after Katrina clobbered New Orleans (even founder Sieur de Bienville’s engineer’s told him that site was a bad choice), but the response then was that I was racist.

If my house falls off the back of my lot, you know I will not ask the federal government, or any other government, for help. Such a disaster is the result of my own choices, good or bad.

When you make a bad choice, unless you are physically or mentally disabled, I say you live with it.

Our priorities are simply wrong. For instance, it is a shame the way we treat our wounded warriors. I think they should each receive a retirement package equivalent to the one the president receives (and so should the widows, widowers or significant others of our fallen soldiers). As far as serving our country, I think they have done far more than any politician at any level.

But back to bailing people out of poor choices. I really think, in the end, this is what global warming is all about. After all, what is so bad about being able to grow palm trees in Yellowknife? Seems like an interesting idea to me.

However, my suspicions are that the real issue is wealthy people the world over are worried about their beach-front property. I think they are genuinely worried that rising oceans will render their property worthless. More poor choices.

I always like to turn things around and see if they make any sense. Helps me gain perspective.

What if, for instance, when Columbus arrived on these shores, there were palm trees in what is now Yellowknife (if you don’t know where Yellowknife is, think Ice Road Truckers).

Centuries went by, we come to this point in time, and there is a danger of Yellowknife becoming what it really is today. Do you not think those with the big bucks would be screaming that we have to do something (for they would have all sorts of expensive resorts in Yellowknife)?

New York City may have been settled 100 miles inland from where it is now, for that would have been the shore.

New Orleans would actually be where Baton Rouge is located.

Don’t you think there would be just as much screaming, yelling and wringing of hands as there is now about global warming?

It is all about transferring money from one group to another. Global warming or climate change, in the end, is merely about bailing out those whose real estate may decline in value.

If you think it is about anything else, examine the evidence. Al Gore has made millions screaming about global warming and investing in "green" scams.

Follow the money – your money – as it bails out other people's poor choices.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga., following decades of wandering the world, and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.