Am I a skeptic? One of those horrendous 'deniers' whom dedicated environmental alarmists scorn for their lack of intelligence in questioning the science behind Global Warming? Guess I'm one of those fence-sitters. Undeniably, something is happening with climate and there certainly appears to be global change in the atmosphere. We see it, we think, in the growing ferocity of weather events turning the world upside down--or trying to, in historical-level floods, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, record rainfalls and ferocious storms wracking the world we live in.

We're book collectors, and we've got a set of 19th-Century Harper's bound volumes. Riffling through them we come across one account after another of world-shaking environmental disasters all of which were held to be catastrophic in extent. Our world is a restless globe, and nature's elements are in constant flux.

It is undeniable also that the hand of humankind in its search for energy sources and exploitation of the Earth's mineral resources have littered all the continents of our world with detritus and our mismanagement of geological features that we constantly interrupt and make use of cause untold damage, from building on floodplains, to filling in wetlands, fracking below the surface of the Earth and injecting chemicals to poison aquifers, destroying forests to grow cash crops for export; any number of ill-thought-out plans that have their consequences harmful and threatening in nature.

But though the truth is out there and should be separated from the hysteria to enable scientists to get a true picture of what is happening and how our mismanagement of our only home is affecting us and what should be done to relieve the stress caused by overuse and exploitation, that's not happening. Case in point; emotionally dramatic claims that the Arctic in its warming has impacted Polar bears and they are now an endangered species, when in fact the Inuit who live in close geographic quarters with the bears attest otherwise, that they are numerous and healthy having adapted to a changing climate, while we fail to. One of the world's leading biologists studying Polar bears has had her papers concluding and validating Inuit observations has been vilified, her research ignored.

It's mid-November here in Ottawa. Winter is yet over a month away by the calendar. Yet we've been experiencing far below normal temperatures with the thermometer dropping to unusual levels for this time of year, accompanied by howling winds and snowstorms galore. The snowpack that usually accumulates over the winter months has already been given its base for oncoming winter to build upon.

Never in our 83-year memory can we recall such events at this time of year. We're living with it and it's extraordinary, it's surprising, but it's fine. The usual winter-onset road accidents are occurring as people adjust their driving habits. We're dressing for the extreme cold, snow and windy conditions and municipalities know that this is a year when their snow-clearing budget will be unusually inadequate.

The weather can be viewed as inconvenient, or one can be resigned and admit that there's little we can do about it, other than to adjust our habitual reactions that automatically inform us after a lifetime of exposure to weather, how we need to healthily face and embrace cold and snow. So that's what we're doing, earlier than is the norm, with the knowledge that this will be a long, protracted winter with colder-than-normal temperatures and a larger snowpack than is usual.

Which is what occurred last year as well, and when the snowpack and the river ice melted in the spring what resulted was flooding for the past several years, ending up with homes being ruined by floodwaters. On the other hand, built on floodplains, they were vulnerable. Last year a few tornadoes came ripping through the area, devastating several communities, demolishing homes and ruining peoples' lives. These things happen and are happening where it seems it is most unusual for them to.

Entering another in the broad existential Little Ice Ages? Possibly. Global Warming? Unlikely.