I started reading the March 23 climate change-denying letter, “ Phasing out coal also could contribute to warming ,” and immediately became skeptical. My initial skepticism was confirmed after clicking on the Scientific American article cited, which had been written nine years ago. The article by Michael Mann, the climate scientist climate deniers love to hate, touched on the “faux pause” in global temperature driven by volcanic eruptions. But the bulk of his writing warned about the dangerous rise in carbon dioxide that is driving climate change. Anyone wanting up-to-date, peer-reviewed research from some of the world’s foremost climate scientists may want to check out Mann’s page at the University of Pennsylvania.
The cited Paul Voosen article at science.org did talk of the moderate warming offset provided by particulate pollution, but left unmentioned by the letter were the many millions of premature deaths caused by our polluted atmosphere.
James Hansen may be a supporter of seeding clouds with aerosols to reduce a short-term temperature increase, but that does not mean he is a supporter of burning coal. He once referred to coal-fired power stations as death factories .
NASA does say the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere that is man-made is indeed 4%, as the letter stated. But the article cited in the letter also said, “Our emissions add significant weight to one side of the balance between carbon being added to the atmosphere and carbon being removed from the atmosphere.” So much for climate-change deniers being honest when quote-mining NASA.
Global climate change is one of the many problems troubling our nation and world. Only recently have our politicians paid more than lip service to this ongoing problem. But our work may be cut out for us when some people misrepresent the research of climate scientists.
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James N. Bragge
Carlton
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