The unseasonably warm weather of the past couple of weeks would seem to point to the specter of global warming. On the other hand this area experienced its earliest snowfall in many years.

Two years ago, Florida had more damaging hurricanes than at any time in the last century, leading the prognosticators to predict 25 more years of devastation because of rising ocean temperatures.

The culprit, according to environmentalists, most certainly was global warming. However, this past year was the lightest hurricane season Florida has seen in recent memory.

Some ecologists predict that the increasing glacier melt in Alaska and Antarctica will raise ocean levels, inundating our coastal plains and wiping Florida off the map. Other scientists say this freeze/melt glacial cycle is normal for our planet, and it will reverse itself in a few years.

It seems that for every theory regarding global warming there is a contradictory theory. In reality, we have been observing the ozone layer and other atmospheric indicators for less than a century - a mere blink of the eye in celestial time.

Our country is widely criticized for not joining the Kyoto protocol for reducing greenhouse gases as our brethren in other industrialized countries have done.

According to David Victor, the director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University, we are doing more than any other country to improve this planet's environment - not by wearing a hair shirt ourselves but rather working with rapidly developing countries such as China and India to control their pollutants.

The United States has been pushing technologies that involve less pain but more gain such as new nuclear power plants and methods of eliminating carbon dioxide from the world's atmosphere (it would accomplish little to reduce our pollutants if the emerging industrial countries do not reduce theirs).

America has offered to help India build nuclear power plants and is working with China to generate cleaner electricity. We are also leading a 15-nation program to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, by turning it into a profitable source of alternative energy.

Global warming or not - there are several compelling reasons for America to go green and eliminate the burning of fossil fuels now.

The most compelling reason, in this author's opinion, is to extricate ourselves and stop dealing with the Middle Eastern countries whose main doctrines are mayhem, murder and martyrdom.

America's grand experiment to bring democracy to that backward part of the world is failing. It is time to take our chips from the table and use our resources, including the most precious resource - our sons and daughters - to address this country's many other problems.

Of course, going green involves a lot more than eliminating the burning of fossil fuels. We must discipline ourselves to conserve our own finite resources and stop the waste. The highest mountains in Florida are those created by man's waste - the landfills. Green should become this country's new religion.

Creating renewable and alternative sources of energy will be the greatest growth industry of the 21st century. Auburn and central New York have a stake in this by becoming energy technology centers.

A $64 million energy research center is under construction in Syracuse, and its tentacles will reach out to embrace Auburn's budding energy technology industry.

Let's hitch our horses to this star.

Harold Miller is a businessman and Auburn native. He may be reached at hmillermod@aol.com