Heated Controversy about the Climate.(Column)(Column)

Byline: Kevin A. Wilson

Having generated angry e-mail from all points of the political compass, I suspect this column may be fulfilling my mission as a representative of ``the media,'' which is, of course, giving everyone else a handy scapegoat to blame for the world's problems. So emboldened, I'm ready for real controversy.

Your kind missives have effected a temporary silence on topics remotely related to geopolitics, however. My e-mail brings routine offers to kick my behind, which I've never worried about before, but now I also receive daily e-mail offers to ``find out anything about anyone,'' so I wonder. (That the CIA and Hans Blix haven't tripped to these intriguing methods for locating Osama or the weapons of mass destruction suggests they have better spam filters than I do.)

Anyway, let's think globally but act locally regarding the climate, specifically the warming thereof: It's a frosty morning, minus three degrees, and your car was parked outdoors. What you want is a nice 70-degree cabin. In the old days, you'd crank the heat and fan dials to the limit on defrost until the windows cleared, then blast heat at your feet until your galoshes melted, then dial it back, then up and down again, then fidget with the fan until the passengers stopped complaining.

Today, though, we have the blessing of ``climate control.'' This is a computer-controlled method of inciting interpersonal misunderstanding. That's because some of us imagine that the point is to set it at a comfortable temperature, then let the magic machines do the adjusting and monitoring. Set it at 70 and the car heats up at the maximum rate until it gets to 70, then blends heated and exterior air to maintain that temp. That's what the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) engineers tell us they design climate control to do. That would be why it's worth hundreds of dollars added to the price of your car, financed over 60 months. Maybe you qualified for zero percent, but anyone who was ...