The good old days — bah!

We generally pooh-pooh the good old days, including the weather — b-o-r-i-n-g, eh?

But, in this sweatshirt summer a good-old-days summer described by Robert Service in the Spell of the Yukon would be welcomed with open arms now, wouldn’t it?

“The summer, no sweeter was ever,

The sunshiny woods all athrill,

The grayling aleap in the river

The bighorn asleep on the hill.”

One thing this summer has done is make it more difficult to embrace global warming holus bolus, or global dimming, or both.

Global dimming coverage has been getting short shrift in comparison to global warming but, apparently, they’re partners.

According to a scientific paper on global dimming, written in laymen’s lingo, “We are all seeing rather less of the sun. Scientists looking at five decades of sunlight measurements reached the disturbing conclusion the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth’s surface has been gradually falling. Paradoxically, the decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is a far greater threat to society than previously thought.”

One fascinating tale from scientists researching global dimming came during the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States: all commercial flights were grounded for three days.

Scientists immediately studied the effect on the climate because there were no contrails from jets, which had already been identified as a significant cause of heat reflection.

They found that without contrails reflecting the sun’s rays, the temperature rose by one degree in just three days.”

So it seems greenhouse gases and carbon aren’t the only fly in the ointment.

Greenpols, a coined name for politicians who are greening up faster than Canadians after free beer, will soon outnumber the fall migration of waterfowl we enjoy annually.

The difference, though, is our waterfowl knows their way and where they are going; they fly together, and work as a team. Only once have I seen them thrown -­off track when they flew over a radio facility’s powerful concentrated emissions.

Their solution was swift. They began circling in an ever-widening circle until one found itself free of the interference, called to the others, and they were back on track faster than you could say, “Jack Robinson.”

I have the impression our green-politicians are, like the geese, influenced, perhaps confused, by the massive and concentrated, scientific, environmental, and media emissions, causing them to go round and round, trying to find their way through the conflicting data, although some find comfort in the circle and, instead of widening the circle, they consider circling the wagons.

We, going round and round and round in the green-up circle seeking a way out of the circle of confusion, are faced with a conundrum such as Churchill described when he said, “There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.”

Which half, is our conundrum!

A lesser, though similar conundrum was encountered by a preacher riding his bicycle on his rounds when he saw a boy trying to sell a lawnmower.

“How much do you want for the mower?” he asked the lad.

‘I just want enough money to go out and buy me a bicycle,’ said the boy.

The preacher thought a bit, then asked, “Will you take my bike in trade for it?’

The boy took a test ride, returned and said, “Mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.”

The preacher began to crank the mower. He pulled on the rope many times with no response from the mower. He called the boy and said, “I can’t get this mower to start.”

“That’s because you have to cuss at it to get it started,” the boy answered.

“I can’t cuss. I haven’t cussed since I became a Christian. I don’t remember how.”

“You keep pulling on that rope. It’ll come back to ya!” the boy said as he rode away.

Those of us who’ve pulled on such ropes before know something will come back to us, but what? We’re learning as we pull on the global warming-and-dimming ropes there are many unanswered questions, overpopulation for one, and how it factors into the global warming equation.

Perhaps when we began addressing the issues as a whole, as a planet, we will find our way out of the circle of confusion?

Past experience in national co-operation let alone planetary co-operation suggests, sadly, that will be a long, long time.