Editor, Gazette-Journal:

 

Dr. Gregory Haugan’s letter to the editor last week, “Bad news from the scientists,” cites yet another report by Dr. James Hansen, this time warning about the “earth’s energy imbalance” (apparently the newspeak for global warming). This is more alarmist propaganda to convince the populace that we are facing a man-made catastrophe and must make extensive sacrifices and hand over our freedoms to the elites who know what is best for humanity and the earth.

 

Where to start—first, the false alarm. Contrary to the claims, the earth has not been warming for the past 15 years, despite continuing worldwide increases in CO2 emissions (Those my age can recall the “scientists,” as recently as 1975, issuing calamity warnings of the impending ice age).

 

Second, it is the variation in solar activity, augmented periodically by volcanic eruptions, that drives the earth’s temperature. Always has been; always will be. There have been numerous cycles of global warming and cooling since the last ice age, during which temperatures have been both higher and lower than today, irrespective of human-generated CO2.

 

Third, the “scientists” present the correlation of atmospheric CO2 content and ocean temperature to demonstrate that CO2 is the culprit in climate change. The chart is usually presented for a time period in hundreds of thousands of years, and it looks convincing at that scale—until the chart is expanded to look at shorter time periods. One then sees that the CO2 atmospheric concentration does track—but lags—the ocean temperature by 75 to 150 years! It is the ocean temperatures that drive the CO2 concentrations, not the reverse.

 

Recall from your high school chemistry class that water absorbs gases when cooled and gives off gases when heated. When warmed by the sun, the ocean gives off CO2; when cooled, it does the opposite.

 

So why do so many “scientists” still push the myth of man-caused climate change? Look no further than the source of their funding. There is an unending pool of grant money available from our government and NGOs to fund those who will do “research” and modeling in support of the politically-driven cause of alarming the public with climate change. The “scientists” can publish to their hearts’ content while enjoying a comfortable living and accolades. The politicians and others on the alarmist bandwagon grow in influence and wealth as the public looks to them to be saved from something that, despite their claims, cannot be influenced.

 

We can no longer afford the ever increasing, costly and restrictive measures that the sky-is-falling climate change alarmists are forcing us to bear in the name of “saving” us. Remember in November.

 

Ted Williams

Gloucester, Va.