Kudos to Clarice Ryan, and her Feb. 14 letter supporting President Bush's stand opposing efforts to control global warming. I too am impressed by Bush's resolve and conviction. To ignore reams of scientific evidence supporting the global warming scenario, and to ignore the fact that nine of the last 10 years have been the warmest ever recorded, takes a truly disciplined and focused intellect.
CAG Comment:
Mr. Eliott is the one who remains ignore of the scientific evidence about global warming. The only indicators of manmade global warming are manmade computer models that were in fact designed to show global warming. As to the fact that the last nine out of ten years have been the warmest is not supported by satellite temperature measurements. Satellite measurements show no warming since 1979 when the program was started, most likely because satellite temperature measurements are not biased by the urban heat island effect. If global warming was actually occurring then it should be ten out of ten years. However, another factor in this record warming just happens to be the fact that our period of record is extremely short. Most temperature measurements in this country started near the end of the little ice age. The little ice age started around 1300 AD and ended around 1850 AD. The earth has been recovering from the little ice age and therefore, should be warming. Prior to 1300 AD the earth experienced temperatures similar to what we see today.
If we look at what is now called the greenhouse effect we find that without this effect there would be no plant or animal life on the planet. The mean temperature of the earth’s surface would be approximately minus 20 degrees centigrade. Because of the atmospheric effect, now known as the greenhouse effect, the earth’s mean temperature is approximately plus 20 degrees Centigrade. The atmosphere traps enough long wave radiation to produce 40 degrees of warming which allows life to exist on the planet. Ninety eight percent of this life producing heat is trapped by water vapor and clouds. That means minor greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, trap only 2 percent of the long wave radiation or only 0.8 degrees of the heat that warms the earth and its atmosphere.
Too further understand how small the effect of human active on the earth’s heat budget is: consider the fact that each year there are 140 billion tons of carbon dioxide introduced into the atmosphere. Ninety eight percent of this carbon dioxide is the result of natural actions such as ocean atmosphere interface, plant and animal decay, forest fires, volcanic activity, etc. Human active such as burning fossil adds only 2 percent. Therefore, the amount of heat added to the earth’s heat budget as a result of human active is approximately 0.015 degrees. It would take about 66 years of consuming fossil fuel at the current rate to warm the earth’s atmosphere 1 degrees centigrade. The science says man is not causing global warming and therefore the Kyoto treaty cannot stop what is not happening. Dr. Richard Lindzen professor of Meteorology at MIT and member of the National Academy of Sciences panel on climate change in testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on 2 May 2001 put it this way, "man like the butterfly has an impact on the climate."
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I would also like to applaud Ryan's stand against those who would try to protect our oceans and major bodies of water. How dare anyone try to usurp my right to dump what I want into whatever body of water I choose? And if the abundance of the oceans is decimated as a result, and if the water that is left to my children and grandchildren is not fit to drink, well, that's their problem. I can't be expected to carry the conscience of the world on my shoulders.
A couple of things should be clarified for Ryan, however. I don't believe anyone said we had "suddenly run out of energy fuels" in the 1970s. The shortages at that time were clearly artificial and related to the efforts of the OPEC energy cartel to manipulate supply. No, we won't run out of fossil fuels for another 30 or 40 years, and until then, I challenge anyone to restrict my right to operate a gas-guzzling SUV. Let the next generation worry about where their power is going to come from; I can't be bothered.
And regarding Ryan's contention that the green community "promotes massive forest fires." Actually, I believe it is nature that promotes those forest fires, as it has done since time immemorial. The green community merely believes that nature also knows how to deal with the consequences of those fires, as it has throughout the ages, even before the lumber industry was here to really show us how it should be done.
CAG Comment:
The green community has promoted the "no cut" policy in our national forests for 15 to 20 years now. Therefore, they are at least helping to promote massive forest fires. Nature has only one way of doing anything. However, we can hope that man can learn from nature and even improve on nature. If Mr. Eliott is so concerned about global warming and more carbon dioxide being put into the atmosphere he should understand that the fires of 2000 and 2001 put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than all human active did during both years. But I guess that it is only carbon dioxide from our use of fossil fuels that cause global warming.
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