Letters and Comments for July 23, 2009

Letters and Comments for July 23, 2009

Lots of evidence of warming

To the Editor:

Charles LeBold wrote to The Observer asking about evidence used to conclude that our climate is changing and justify changing our methods of doing business. His letter was written to sound reasonable but the underlying sentiment seemed clear — he does not believe that climate change is happening and/or believes it is not human-caused.

While no amount of scientific evidence will sway some, it took me five minutes to find what he asked for. First, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration houses the National Weather Service and climate scientists, whose job it is to provide this type of information so that our leaders can use the best science available when making these momentous decisions (that’s the way it’s supposed to work, anyway, but not the way it was done under the Bush administration). You can go to www.noaa.gov and find lots of information on climate change, some of which is still being slanted by Bush administration political philosophy.

Secondly, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued reports in 2007 and 2008, providing evidence for climate change, as well as gaps in our knowledge. You can read their reports at http://www.ipcc.ch/. Those two sites could keep anyone busy for quite some time and provide real scientific data, as opposed to the kind supplied by Fox Noise.

But I want to make another (more important?) point: Even if (and this is a huge “if”) humans are not responsible for even part of the increase in global temperature, can anyone argue that spewing tens of millions of tons of pollutants into the air every day is not bad for us and our environment? Even conservatives like Newt Gingrich agree with that. So, how can anyone justify not taking steps to mitigate the pollution of our environment, if not the warming of our planet?

Tim Hoffnagle

La Grande