Perhaps it is correct when Pat Campbell states climate change comes through fewer sunspots. Noone has studied the sun long enough to know all the ways it impacts Earth. However, even if we have a major glaciation every 10,000 years, and in between smaller cycles of cold and warm, could species adapt or new species develop that rapidly? Where will these species migrate to during a next glaciation? Or all 6 billion humans, for that matter? This particular view of global change as being a natural phenomena not impacted by humans, sounds just as unpleasent as warming. But just as lead molecules in gasoline, which are still swirling around up in the stratosphere even after all these years, caused holes in ozone, so too could other human activities have impact on our enviornment. What other ways have we disturbed a balance we were unaware of?

The whole debate about whether the planet is warming or not , and if it is, the debate about human contribution to it, seems shortsighted from a survivalist point of view… If my car is speeding toward a unseen drop-off, would I just roar along until I had proof the drop-off existed, perhaps too late, or would I take evasive action based on warning signs on the side of the road?

“Often societal ‘”truth” is mixed with assumption, half truth, some truth, and falsity.”

The last sentance of your post is one of those statements that can be taken apart and reassembled over and over and each time making a different picture. Hence, the fun of debate and long conversations. Maybe societal “truth” is individualized exclusively, and thereby exempts proof based on research, testing, and calculation.

On the bridge itself, it is pure lunacy to replace the current bridge. It should be declared a historic landmark so it can’t be taken down. We need three bridges over the Columbia. Portland has more than that over the Willamette.