It is the title of Al Gore's new book. The choice to which he referred was whether to take climate seriously and develop non-polluting energy sources to prevent global warming, or continue with business as usual, and ignore the warnings of climate scientists. There are plenty of deniers ready and willing to take big oil and big coal's money to beat the drum for BAU.

The tiny town of Coldwater Kansas once again proves that Kansas is in the forefront of the state of denial. From passing laws prohibiting the installation of wind turbines in the Flint Hills to forcing schools to teach Creationism, Kansas carries the banner for denial of anything that has happened since the dark ages. The tiny Western Star newspaper, "The Official Newspaper of Coldwater, Kansas," has written an open letter in a two page spread to Al Gore. Why they think he would read it is a mystery...

I just returned from a Thanksgiving trip from Tucson to south Central Kansas.  Traveling north from I-40 up through the rolling hills of Oklahoma, just west of Oklahoma City we encountered two very large wind farms. I think the enormous wind turbines several 100 feet high are magnificent and graceful. They straddled both sides of the two lane country highway, and all of them were steadily churning out electric power. It was enough to make the 2,000 mile round trip worth the trouble and gasoline...

Last week an article in the news told of the Kansas Supreme Court agreeing to uphold a law banning wind farms in the great Flint Hills 30 miles west of Wichita. They didn't want to despoil the views. I have driven through that area dozens of times visiting my in-laws. The Flint Hills are majestic, particularly when the wild flowers are in bloom. Mostly they occur along the roads and the view of them wouldn't be bothered that much by a wind turbine. But I'm willing too compromise...

I understand how a wind farm might look like a tornado on Doppler radar to the weather man. Doppler radar picks up wind movement. I can’t believe that technology and training can’t overcome this problem. First the weather man needs to know exactly where the turbines are. That seems to me to be a slam dunk, what with GPS technology. They could simply turn off the turbines in severe weather. Violent storms are usually fast moving so the down time would not be a serious problem, especially when we get our new Smart Grid built. Areas without severe weather could feed into areas where it was storming. Couldn't they just feather the blades like they do on an airplane to cut drag when an engine fails...?