The benefits of global warming

On Monday, Aug. 27, the New York Times carried a story describing how the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean is currently at its lowest recorded level, and we still have a month of melting to go before it starts its seasonal build-up.

Much of the story focused on comments from scientists blaming human activity for the melting. What really stood out, however, was this sentence in the second half of the story:

"The melting does, however, offer some potential benefits, including new shipping routes and easier access to oil and other mineral deposits. A rush is on to stake claims and begin mineral exploration in the Arctic."

Great! One of the benefits of melting, which was caused by human activities, is that it opens up more areas for oil extraction.

Does anyone else see the problem here?

I believe that one of the basic qualities of being human is the ability to recognize a paradox. Well, with this article, we just got a little less human.

Very important thoughts...

...can be found elsewhere. Meanwhile, there's this:

• Isn't evaporation awesome? I mean, imagine how terrible it would be if liquid water just didn't disappear into the atmosphere like it does. We'd just be wet all the time, especially after a rainstorm. Our hair would never dry. And so on.

• Here's a great quote from Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself,' which I would like to read someday:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

• Another nice notion, which I heard somewhere on National Public Radio: "Truth is what everyone right now declines to argue about."

• Why is global warming a concern when all I hear about is polarization?

• When I was a kid, for years I thought 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' was a poem about electricity.

BP: Small-time compared to this!

• In an age of heightened environmental awareness, is the above insignia really the best way to promote a brand of paint?

• Unfair competition? The 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio De Janiero will actually take place in winter. What can be done about this hemisphere bias?

• Do dog owners really look like their pets? I have to say this seems to be the case. And so among the conclusions you can reasonably draw is that because people choose their pets, then people generally see their own image as desireable.

• I was struck by how 18th century astronomers were able to use the Transit of Venus in 1761 and then 1769 to calculate the actual distance between Earth and the sun. Simple equipment but extremely elegant logic and calculations allowed insight into realities beyond our immediate grasp. Make me wonder if there's not a way to tease out truths about our existence from the mundane and humdrum lives we all lead. Is there a parallax of the soul?

• When nothing else is going right, read a book by David McCullough. Right now I'm going through "Pathway Between The Seas," his 1977 history of the construction of the Panama Canal. Wow, I had no idea how bad a pesthole Panama was!