Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 1: January 2014 | Page 56

Thinking Outside the Blocks
PART III : FEEL THE HEAT
by DENNIS PAGEN

T

wo of the things that please me
immensely in regards to flying
are the colors blue and green. I
love to be surrounded by the color
blue, whether it’s studded with white
puffs or not. I find the beauty of the
sky to be indescribable and the ability to be part of it is a gift from the
gods. Blue is my favorite color.
But green can’t be underestimated.
At least in the East we are enclosed
in green when we prepare for flight, it
waves below us when we are airborne
and it welcomes us back to earth when
the airtime is over. Green has been
found to be the most relaxing color for
the majority of humans. Is it because
we evolved in green environs? Are
Martians most relaxed in a red room?
Do people who live surrounded by
buildings and concrete lack something
deep in their psyche?
A recent German study, reported
in the New York Times (2/17/13) has
found that humans are most creative
when surrounded by the color green.
We also supposedly learn better, are
more efficient and heal faster in a
green environment (maybe all flight
training should take place in the rainy
Northwest or the East). I am writing
this on a warm fall day on my verdant
lawn under a pin oak. Someday soon
I am going to build a tree room and
write my novel.
This series is about creativity,
thinking a bit differently in regards

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HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

to flying and perhaps learning some
details that we my have missed in
our development from fledgling to
bird(wo)man. This month we get
down to the nitty gritty and talk
about a “green” issue that directly affects our flying. Get ready to knit your
brow and grit your teeth as we broach
the hot topic of global warming.

FEET IN THE FIRE
Why would we devote these pages to
something that is sure to stir up angst
and controversy? Why indeed? Never
mind that global warming, if true, is
going to impact all of our lives—globally. Never mind that most of the effects, if real, will be undesirable. Let’s
just focus on the fact that it will affect
all of our flying.
Now I’m going to offer a brief
sketch of what is known to date.
Unfortunately, the whole subject of
global warming has become politicized. In other words, some folks
believe they have a vested interest
in delaying any effort to slow global
warming, while others believe the opposite. If you, dear reader, get overly
wrought about the subject, I suggest

you simply skip to the next section
covering what we pilots can do in the
current weather/climate situation. For
the rest of us, here are some facts:
First, we should recognize that
climatologists have several ways of
determining the climate around the
world for many millenniums in the
past. We all know about tree-ring
data in long-lived species, notably
the bristlecone pine that has lived
for several thousands of years up
above the Owens Valley. Tree-ring
data correlate very well with ice-core
samples, a technique that has come
into its own in the last few decades. In
fact, the most informative book I have
read on the subject is The Two-Mile
Time Machine by Richard B. Alley,
Princeton University Press. It is a fascinating introduction to the study of
ice-core samples taken in Greenland
providing data dating back 200,000
years. Since the book’s publication,
ice-core samples in Antarctica have
gone back even further. In a nutshell,
the method involves looking at each
year’s fall of snow (which gets compacted into ice and preserves the year’s
conditions). There is a yearly record of

Why would we devote these pages to
something that is sure to stir up angst and
controversy? Why indeed?