Speaking out loud about global warming
Gail Mills from Golden Lake, Ontario writes:
Our local paper is the Eganville Leader and when I read something that really bothers me, I tend to react by writing letters to the editor. Earlier this summer, there was a letter that talked again about global warming being a bandwagon that the Liberals recently jumped on and that scientists are paid by the government to sway the "simple-minded!" What a load! So I responded and my letter was published on August 6, which I wanted to share:
In response to Wed July 29, 2008 "Get Down from Global Ivory Tower"
It amazes me that there still are those who question the impact of the activities of human beings on our planet. Whether you want to believe that global warming is happening or not, the simple fact that we pollute the air, water, soil, and other living creatures on our earth every single day in so many ways is not open to debate by anyone. Anyone, including scientists, that call global warming complete nonsense, is missing the point. The real issue is pollution, and it needs to be addressed by everyone. Thank God that the Liberals and Kyoto are doing at least something - it won’t be enough, but it will be a start. Scientists have been trying to get governments and everyone to see the problems of pollution for many, many years (even since the 1600’s!). Spending money to help our environment is necessary, and is more important than ever before. Gas prices will not go down - alternative fuels and automobiles are coming, and new technology will hopefully help solve some of the problems that fossil fuel overuse has caused. (If you haven’t heard about compressed air engines, they are amazing - check them out on the internet! Imagine using air to run your engine, and filling up your tank using an air compressor! I can’t wait for the day that most of my hard earned money is not burned up in my car engine!)
The environment IS the biggest issue in Canada. The best thing you can do is learn more about pollution and start doing what needs to be done. I love looking out my window every morning and seeing the wonders of nature. I don’t want to think that my grandchildren will not see this same beautiful country. We need to do all we can to protect and care for our land, air, and water. Without these essentials, there is no future. Now that’s something to think about next time you fill up your gas tank.
Tags: Canada, climate change, fuel, global warming, grandchildren, Kyoto, letters to the editor, Liberals, pollution, scientists
August 26th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Gail, I hope any sane person is concerned about pollution and regulation human discharges of polluting materials into our environment. However, CO2 is not a pollutant. CO2 is plant food. There is still no final scientific proof that human activity has any impact on our climate. I urge you to go to valid, neutral scientific websites to learn and understand that the science is not settled. The Liberals and Kyoto as you have identified them want you and me and the rest of our society to give up our freedom and economic system to embrace one world government and socialism. Wake UP!!!
August 26th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Bob says that CO2 is plant food and that there is no scientific evidence that humans are causing global warming. The first comment is just silly, and the second plain wrong. Although it’s unlikely that conspiracy theorists who think the world’s scientists are all just wacky socialists trying to take their cars away will ever change their thinking, those who consider the issue rationally will see that the evidence for human-caused global warming is clear, and the problem is serious.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made up of more than 2,000 scientists from 100 countries, concluded that human activity is responsible for most of the warming observed during the past 50 years. The Royal Society of Canada, along with the national academies of 15 other nations, including all G-8 countries, as well as China, India, and Brazil, agree.
Bob also urges people “to go to valid, neutral scientific websites to learn and understand that the science is not settled.” He doesn’t mention what those websites are, but I would guess that they are the ones sponsored in part by oil and gas interests. All the neutral science websites and all the peer-reviewed scientific studies conclude that humans are causing global warming on a potentially catastrophic scale.
As author George Monbiot wrote in the Guardian: “It is hard to convey just how selective you have to be to dismiss the evidence for climate change. You must climb over a mountain of evidence to pick up a crumb: a crumb which then disintegrates in the palm of your hand. You must ignore an entire canon of science, the statements of the world’s most eminent scientific institutions, and thousands of papers published in the foremost scientific journals.”
August 26th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Readers might like to check out http://www.desmogblog.com for more on this issue, including this list of resources on the science of climate change: http://www.desmogblog.com/is-climate-change-real.
Earlier this month, New York Times op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman quoted climate change expert Dorthe Dahl-Jensen of the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen: “The climate is always changing, sometimes very abruptly, so the last thing that mankind should be doing is adding its own forcing actions — like pumping unprecedented amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Because you never know — you never know — what will tip the balance and send us hurdling into another abrupt change … and into another era.”
August 29th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
This is obviously an interesting discussion, particularly the arrogant suggestion that there is no ‘proof’ that human beings and their actions are responsible for environmental difficulties (”The World Without Us” is a very interesting fictional but practical story). I recall seeing the pre-Olympic smog that bore down and choked the Beijing skyline and the population with it. The government shut down factories and severely curtailed the use of automobiles during the event and voila, the air cleared up, the smog dissipated and people started to breath without respirators. The Chinese government was playing the ‘conservative’ philosophy of human environmental denial, but I think that is practical proof of human interferrence in the quality of environmental standards. If you put this obvious situation together with obvious scientific concern for global warming and it’s ultimate consequences, I’d say that denial is a wrong minded and dangerous concept.