Letter: Gore should take a look at history

Talk about it

I am concerned about our world, as is almost everyone, but Al Gore’s assessment of where the world is headed is a bit too much. Evidently he has not done his research, or he never studied the history of Minnesota and the United States as most of us had.

My recollection of the history, before we even became a state, was about the glaciers that covered the United States. When the glaciers started to move south and melt, they moved with them boulders, rocks and whatever was in their way. The hills, mountains, lakes and rivers were the outcome of this phenomenon. This was the beginning of the Mississippi, among others. Gradually the earth was warmed, as many of us old folks can attest to.

When I was a kid, a snowstorm was a real snowstorm — you couldn’t see more than a foot in front of you, with a wind that was horrendous. I call it a snowstorm when I can’t see across the street. Not to say one should be out in it!

To preface this force of nature, the reason we had the glaciers, ice, snow, polar bears, seals and other animals that thrive in the white frozen north, was the cause of the temperature change. A meteor struck the earth and it sent up dirt that shut the sun’s light from keeping the earth warm in summer and allowed it to be frigid in winter.

In recent years, skeletons have been discovered, as near as South Dakota, of dinosaurs and it is conceivable that they were victims of the meteor when it hit the earth.

I was fortunate to have read a diary by someone who told of snow in July when we expect very hot weather. I’m sure there are others who have similar ‘hand-me-down’ tales to tell.

Al Gore, get over it. Your fame is for naught.

One more thought. Back in the late 1980s, the U.S. Government was giving large tax breaks for oil companies for ‘exploration and production.’ Exxon drilled the largest producing natural gas well in the world. They got their tax break, and capped the well. If it is still capped, I do not know. It was off the coast of Mobile, Ala. Also, Exxon has major holdings in Saudi Arabia. Who is responsible for the price of gas, natural gas, oil, chemicals and the many by-products of oil refining? The government and the oil companies. Not such strange bedfellows. Too bad that when they die they will take with them the same amount of money that I will.

Betty Litka

Pipestone

Tags: opinion, algore, al, gore, globalwarming