In response to the (Dec. 5) article about the Hood River Elks I’d like to say that it could have been perceived wrongly.

Our intent with our future is to look at possible ways to improve and modernize our facility. We give back to the community through many local charities and having a more efficient facility will make it possible to give back to our wonderful community for many years to come.

Our members will determine our future and any changes and improvements that may be made. I think it’s the friendliest place to socialize, dine or work out in our fitness center and know that the profits are helping our community at the same time.

Tea Party 2007

The Constitution cannot defend itself. Our elected officials, the president, vice president and both houses of congress are doing nothing to defend it.

Can you smell the Bill of Rights burning? They are being replaced by torture, domestic spying, rendition, obstruction of justice and lies.

Sunday, Dec. 16, is the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. You are invited to the Portland Tea Party on Dec. 16. Rain or shine, we meet at 12:30 p.m. at the Peace Park Memorial (N.E. Oregon St. at N. Interstate Avenue).

From there we march to the MAX, board it, and go the Pioneer Square to serenade the shoppers. Next stop is Salmon Street; meet there at 2 p.m. to declare our independence and proceed up onto the Hawthorne Bridge for a traditional American Tea Party!

Remember no taxation without representation. For carpool information call 386-2973.

Factors in warming

Other factors affect our climate in addition to the eccentricities of our planet’s orbit which I discussed earlier.

Pick any date 1,500 to 2,000 years ago. In 250 B.C., as an example, the earth was 3 to 5 degrees Celsius warmer than it is today. That’s 5.5 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Sea levels were 10 to 15 feet higher. Glaciers were much smaller. You can verify this yourself by simply doing a Google search of the Internet for early historical climate data.

Now 25 B.C. is long before the Industrial Revolution. Before man’s use of automobiles, PCBs, CFCs and all the other things that are blamed for warming of the climate. I believe that a number of natural forces are really responsible for climate variations.

Our sun is an amazing constant source of energy that drives our planet’s climate. But it does exhibit a certain degree of cyclic variation. Sometime around 1400 A.D., in a period known as the Little Ice Age, the earth again cooled substantially. This cooling period began with an event called the Sporer Minimum. This occurrence was characterized by an almost total absence of sunspot activity. Around 1520 A.D. the sunspots returned and the world again warmed a few degrees. In 1640 A.D. came another period of minimal sunspot activity, the Maunder Minimum.

This lasted until 1700 A.D. when again the climate warmed a few degrees. Then repeated in 1805 A.D. when the Dalton Minimum again cooled the climate. This event ended in 1925 and we are now in another warming period. If this cyclic nature holds true to form the current warming should end around 2010 and we should see a cooling trend again.

It is important to recognize that we are simply coming out of yet another period of cooling on a long series of cooling and warming cycles.

Do the research for yourself, don’t simply rely on the myopic ranting of people like Al Gore, Greenpeace, and the scientists that they have in their pocket. These people have an agenda. One that is not in our best interests.