Is it just me, or is this entire global warming bit not such a bad thing? Sure, the rest of the planet is having a rather rough time of it with those pesky floods, blizzards, droughts, mud slides, forest fires and what not, but here in Southern Illinois, things are going pretty good. So good, in fact, that my roommates and I are even considering throwing a Styrofoam-cup-burning bonfire party this weekend in order to speed up the entire ozone depletion process. A great deal of good a huge hole over Antarctica does me.

For those of you that are sarcasm impaired, you can put down the makeshift voodoo dolls now. I’m just joking about the global warming thing. Though it is nice to have a mild winter, no good can come from this freak-o weather, and it is actually a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

The El Nio weather pattern is a large phenomena that I know very little about except that it wasn’t at all unexpected and isn’t particularly unique in and of itself. Basically, a huge pool of warm water formed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which triggered this worldwide mess. It has happened before, though possibly not on such a grand scale.

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What is different about this time around is that scientists knew it was coming, therefore were able to study it in depth. Though I shouldn’t be confused as some sort of expert in this field (Editor’s Note:Nor any field, for that matter, including a field of corn) and any follow up on this column by a person that actually knows what this is all about would be greatly appreciated and certainly beneficial to the reader, what I got out of a recent report seemed to indicate that the effects of global warming, which will begin to present themselves in the next decades if we don’t do something to correct the current situation, will make this season’s weather seem paltry by comparison. True global warming will mean that every year, year in, year out, will look like this year, only worse.

So, if we would like to continue to be the dominant species on this planet, will all the neat stuff like instant potatoes intact, now would be a good time to start seriously considering doing something about the global warming scenario. Or else it’s going to get very crowded around here.