By Dr. Robert Thorson
My New Year’s resolution was not to write a single column about global climate change. I hereby break that resolution.
“God is Great. Beer is good. And People are Crazy.”
That’s the chorus of a country-music tune that played on the radio as I drove toward Narragansett Bay, R.I., for a New Year’s holiday. Within minutes, the song had clairvoyantly captured the essence of what I was about to witness: the residue from the 35th Annual Penguin Plunge at Mackerel Cove Beach in Jamestown.
Police directed me away from the traffic chaos. I braked for half-naked drunks staggering along the road. On the sidewalk were families dispersing toward cars parked on side streets. According to the lead article for The Jamestown Press (Jan. 6) by Cindy Cingone, a 25-foot-tall inflatable penguin presided over a giant beach party complete with barbecues and beer. She estimated that 2,000 revelers were present, about half taking the plunge. “The lovely bikini-clad Lynne Diamante, 2010 Mrs. Rhode Island,” made an appearance. One group, probably in need of a designated driver, hired a stretch limo. Someone else packed 31 friends into a commercial bus. Sixteen local firefighters were stationed along the beach to ensure that no one died of self-inflicted hypothermia. Two were on high alert, wading the water in wet suits.
Why the craziness? Thirty-five years ago, a few residents of this Narragansett Bay town decided to celebrate the New Year by jumping into the icy water at Mackerel Cove Beach at noon. Though hardly an original idea (midwinter plunges are routine in many communities), this provided an excuse to have a little fun, and perhaps to help ameliorate a few hangovers from the night before. A tradition was born. Organizers stepped in. The event was soon raising big money for charity, gradually becoming the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Rhode Island Special Olympics.
On the beach at Mackerel Cove, the air temperature was 54 degrees during the Penguin Plunge. Never before had it exceeded 50 degrees. This pattern was consistent with the record-breaking heat of 2010. According to the Northeast Regional Climate Center, Boston experienced its highest average temperature since records were first kept in 1872. Hartford, Providence, Concord, New Hampshire and Caribou, Maine, also broke their heat records.
Of course, the average temperature varies each year. But the long-term trend toward unusually warm conditions is compelling, whether from surface measurements, satellite coverage or ice cores. Yet at the same time, fewer and fewer Americans now believe that the globe is warming, or that humans have anything to do with it. Those polled may be the same people who believe penguins inhabit the Arctic, which they assuredly do not. The song is right. “People are crazy.”
Is beer good? That depends on your perspective. “Save the Bay” is a popular statewide slogan, with the main concern being the treatment of wastewater effluent and the consequent nutrient and microbial pollution that follows. On Mackerel Cove, the Jamestown police were concerned about the lack of portable toilets during what amounted to a two-hour party. Thank God for the flush of the tide.
Is God great? Of course it, she, or he is, assuming you aren’t an atheist, which I am assuredly not. But I do often ask myself, if God is so great, then why are people so crazy?
Everyone must reach their own conclusion on this question. In the broader context of environmental policy, our craziness is destructive. In the narrower context of having a little fun, a sense of humor and an excuse to party help make life bearable.
I’ll end with a little fun of my own, a thought experiment. What if winter conditions in southern New England warm to the point where January temperatures in the 40s and 50s are routine? Clearly, the craziness of winter plunges would diminish. Would we be crazy enough to let this happen?