lol

Actually Market Place isn't too bad. They have stock brokers and tresurary officials and such -- real people in the biz -- frequently on the show.

Still, bland news attracts no listeners ...

I agree with you on the climate change thing and I do remember the "new ice age crisis". Most of the media hype isn't really driven by the data. The temperature may be warming, but I'd place the likely cause to be solar fluctuations and long-term cyclical events rather than human factors. The increases in CO2 probably will be offset by enhanced plant growth, perhaps helping future agriculture. Besides, the climate is never static, but always changing and fluctuating (in Texas, it changes by the minute).

Catastrophic, sudden climate changes are unlikely. The usual tornadoes, blizzards, ice storms, heat waves, floods thunderstorms, hurricanes that make up weather will always be with us.

BMT, I don't think you're paranoid to take notice of trends in the weather.

We're certainly noticing some trends on the Canadian Prairies. It seems like we're getting more of everything -- longer dry periods and drought cycles, wetter and longer wet periods, more high wind/large hail/tornado type storms, and so on.

They're mostly the same weather events ... just supersized in strength and duration. For that reason they can wreak havoc on ecosystems and wildlife, and on agriculture and people. That is certainly reason for thoughtful people to take notice.

A few things I'm working on:
- increasing my water catchment, to keep the garden going during hot, dry spells
- contemplating some sort of ground-loop piping for summer air cooling in the house
- thinking about reinforcing and stocking a room in the basement as a tornado shelter
- going over the house insurance policy carefully, to make sure the loopholes are plugged, even if it costs more
- and, I'm trying to be a lot more efficient with my energy use (seems a responsible course of action across the board).

Beyond that? Crack a beer and keep an eye on the sky.