Citizen Power

On Friday morning in Minnesota we set a temperature record of -36 degrees below zero (F). That is not including wind chill, that was the air temperature. I know to Alaskans and people of northern Canada, this is no big deal, but it was a big deal to a lot of Minnesotans because we have been spoiled. Because of global climate change, our winters over the past 10 years have gotten gradually warmer, so that as of the last two years we were enjoying temperatures in the 50s in December and February and melting snow in February too. By April it was really warming up. Not this year!

But January has always been the one cold month and we can’t seem to avoid it, so we usually still have one week of “Arctic” Air that sits over us for a few days. It’s usually called an “Alberta Clipper” or some variation of that. I don’t know why “Arctic Air” comes from Alberta, because Alberta technically is not in the Arctic, but in any case, I can assure you it is painfully cold. Air that cold actually hurts your lungs when you breath it. But some people love the cold, like the man in this video.

This is a man who lives not far from me who is sort of an eccentric scientist. He’s really a computer programmer who is quite creative.  He has geothermal heating setup of some type (I should call him and find out how he’s got this set up) and he has set up a robotic arm to spray water continually on his 35-foot high “ice sculpture” of a dragon. I don’t think it looks like a dragon in any way, but it’s his art work so who am I to judge? The video is from KARE11 News and from Minnesota Stories . I plan to drive down there next weekend and see this creature with my own eyes.

Not everyone here loves the cold.  We have had three cases of hypothermia deaths in Minnesota in the last week, mostly involving people who were in their cars, or trying to start their cars, or near their cars. One woman was on her way out to her car when she slipped and fell but she recovered after she’d nearly frozen to death. If Minnesotans and the rest of the world was smart, we’d be using that geothermal energy for heating our garages and providing electricity for our cars. Electric cars would start better than gas-combustion engines too.