LETTERS
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A CLEAR CORRELATION Mr. Hellner’s views on climate change are certainly comforting (“Letters,” Aug. 6). I, too, would like to believe that the earth is merely experiencing a cyclical pattern of heating and cooling, and that in the long run, all is well. Which makes me wonder, is Mr. Hellner a scientist? Does he hold an advanced degree in climatology? Has he personally done research on man’s effects on the environment? If so, I will take solace in his views. If it turns out that he is merely swallowing information fed to him by Fox News and politicians in the pockets of the oil companies, however, I believe I will stick with the consensus of 97 percent of scientists, who maintain that the earth is indeed warming and the cause is directly linked to human activity. Who point out that there is a clear link between rising CO2 levels and rising temperatures. Who urge us that the time to take action against climate change is now, and to wait might mean the damage we are doing is irreparable. To ignore the dire warnings of these highly educated individuals in favor of pseudoscience peddled by those who have a direct monetary stake in denying climate change seems like a bad gamble to make. After all, as it’s been pointed out numerous times, there is no “Planet B.” The good folks of our coastal cities are going to have a hard time enjoying fossil fuels and all the products they make possible when they’re under water.
In the absence of rigorous data to the contrary, it seems that the Obama Administration’s push to fight climate change is indeed an effort to “take away our freedom” – our freedom to pollute our oceans and air to the point where human life palpably suffers on this planet. Which is a freedom I’m happy to surrender. Erika Holst Springfield
GRADUAL CHANGES When I opened Illinois Times yesterday I expected to see a letter from someone answering Jack Hellner’s question “I would love to hear someone explain how with rising CO2 for 120 years that the trend has changed five times.” Instead there was another letter from the same fellow saying the same thing.
The answer is simple: climate change doesn’t happen within a lifetime.
There are always periodic fluctuations lasting decades, but decades are actually tiny pieces of time. Even the “little ice age” they had about a thousand years ago wasn’t climate change.
On Aug. 13 (“Letters”), he repeats the question with “why did they think the earth was cooling 40 years ago,” the answer was again simple – there was cooling, caused partly by smoke and soot obscuring the sun, helped along by a lot of volcanic activity around the globe. There have been a lot of erupting volcanoes in the last several years so we can see some years of cooling. All the while, the greenhouse gases are accumulating, and when the volcanic smoke clears, like the smokestack smoke cleared when governments forced industries to clean up their acts, warming will be pretty rapid.
He is incorrectly correct when he says this isn’t the first generation to see climate change; there is a natural cycle of climate change. The last ice age was 12,000 years ago, and we are now in the earth’s normal warm part. There were humans during the last ice age.
The planet Venus sits in the sun’s habitable zone, yet its surface is hot enough to melt metals, thanks to its CO2 atmosphere. Steve McGrew Springfield
Editor’s note: For more on climate change, see GUESTWORK, “Melting ice and rising ocean levels,” by Roy Wehrle, on page 3.
