George Mathews wrote that he was unable to find any science supporting global warming (July 25).
Here are some established scientific organizations to check with: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Academy of Sciences, The American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, Scientific American, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
There is an overwhelming consensus among the established scientific community that global warming exists. Of course, it is possible to find some skeptics and paid pseudo-scientists who dispute that.
Dispute is a good thing if it’s based in science — then it can be proven or disproved. If it’s based on a paranoid ideology that the world’s leading scientists have somehow managed to conspire to produce an overwhelming body of bad science that the government can use to control the people, then it’s nonsense.
Climate change deniers try to dismiss the preponderance of evidence by discrediting respected institutions.
Consensus scientific evidence is not political theory. The politics involved is when legislators, influenced by the fossil fuel industry, block legislation and take payment for pseudo-science. Fortunately, on that side, there is solid, conclusive evidence: Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., on the U.S. Senate floor, held a snowball as scientific evidence that there is no climate change.
Folks should look for evidence themselves, but not selectively. Consider, what explanation is there for why the world’s scientific community would conspire (if they were able to) to produce a gigantic hoax?
I’ll check with Rush Limbaugh; he’ll come up with something.
Jeff Christiansen, Gorham
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story