Opinion: Finding Meaning

Better Guidance

Curiosity caused me to exit the freeway on our recent trip to Utah. The Beautiful Wife, knowing this was unusual, became curious. Now we were on a country road, passing grazing cattle, horses in pastures, and alfalfa fields. In the distance, we spied the object of my curiosity: An electric generating plant with an unusual neighbor—a 23-acre greenhouse that grows tomatoes, a million pounds a year, even in cold, snowy winter.

It’s a symbiotic partnership. The plant burns natural gas to produce electricity (much of which goes to California), exhausting hot air high in carbon dioxide. It’s not a climate change disaster, the greenhouse needs both—heat and carbon dioxide—to grow tomatoes. Remember learning about photosynthesis in your high school biology class? Basically, plants need sunlight (supplemented here by LED lights), water, and carbon dioxide to grow, and give back fresh oxygen as a byproduct.

Carbon dioxide is an essential nutrient for plants but traditional greenhouses have a problem—plants absorb carbon dioxide to grow and as the carbon dioxide level declines, growth slows. For tomatoes, the optimum carbon dioxide level is two to three times the natural amount found in air. Here in the tiny farm town of Mona, settled in 1852, that problem has been solved and agriculture is being reinvented.

Several weeks ago, I wrote a column, “A Higher Source of Guidance,” that revealed my doubts about claims that anthropogenic climate change would end life. A lot is said about climate change and it has seemed to me more propaganda than science. Prompted by the integrity of the late Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, I shared my doubts. I soon received a note: “Great article this week… as usual. …You might get some letters to the editor re Climate.” He was right and these letters weren’t complimentary. I searched the letters for actual facts and found just one: “there is a 99% consensus by climate scientists that global warming is due to human activity.” If someone would provide a citation, I would happily examine this dubious claim in a future column.

It’s not my intent to reverse public opinion on climate change—that would be Quixotic—but to just be honest and not live the lie. As written before, I believe in the three-generation rule—that grave errors in public belief or practice require three generations to be corrected. The first generation embraces the error, the second suffers the consequences, and the third wakes up and makes a course correction. Twentieth-century cigarette smoking, or the war on natural fats, are good examples. It’s tragic, but it takes three generations.

The message of “A Higher Source of Guidance” was that much in life is unknowable or won’t be known at the moment of need. We can cope with this by seeking a higher source of guidance. The Bible represents six millennia of human experience and wisdom, prayer is constantly taught, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit is demonstrated. There’s meaning in that.

Skip fell in love with Laguna on a ‘50s surfing trip. He’s a student of Laguna history and the author of “Loving Laguna: A Local’s Guide to Laguna Beach”. Email: [email protected]