My latest letter to the editor (climate related)

[steveyo]

Today, the Times Union (Albany, NY newspaper) published my letter to the editor. If you don't read anything else, skip down to the part of my letter which I've bolded.

Mine was in response to this other guy's letter:

Originally Posted by April 17 letter from another guy

With an exquisite sense of timing, the U.N. releases a report on human-induced global warming just as large sections of the United States are experiencing yet another week of record-breaking cold. Particularly amusing was the reference to spring arriving earlier, while millions were shoveling snow on Sunday.
But, of course, weather events such as this one are attributable to global warming, and I have already heard one solemn-faced newscaster report that as fact.
As she always does, Mother Nature will -- somewhere down the line -- bring us a run of record-breaking warmth, which will neatly balance the temperature equation. That, too, will be caused by global warming. I strongly suggest that anyone who wishes to see through the hype of "global warming" read "Unstoppable Global Warming" by Fred Singer and Dennis Avery.
And, for the record, they are not in the pay of the oil companies.
MICHAEL L. NARDACCI

Well, when I read that I was inspired to write this (link):

Here's the text of my letter:

Originally Posted by my April 27 letter

In an April 17, letter, Michael Nardacci claims April's cold weather and snowstorms are evidence against global warming.

Global warming isn't going to make every day hot from now on. However, it can cause wildly erratic weather, such as Hurricane Katrina and last year's record heat waves around the globe. We've witnessed record-setting heat last winter, a 12-foot snowstorm in western New York and this April's cold and floods.

There were 928 peer-reviewed articles on climate change published in scientific journals between 1993 and 2003. (Peer-review is where other experts in the field review and verify articles). None -- not one article -- disagreed with the premise that current warming trends are caused or worsened by human activities.

Every major scientific association has issued statements concluding that the evidence for human modification of climate is compelling.

Mr. Nardacci suggests a book by Fred Singer and Dennis Avery to help us "see through the hype of 'global warming,' " adding that the authors are not in the pay of oil companies. Sorry, incorrect. Firstly, neither author has managed to publish on the topic of climate change in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Further, Singer consulted for the oil industry in the 1980s. In 1998, ExxonMobil gave $10,000 to Singer's institute, the SEPP, and another $65,000 to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which promotes Singer's work. Singer also works for the Frontiers of Freedom Institute, an anti-environmental group funded by ExxonMobil, among others, according to The Wall Street Journal. Avery works at the Hudson Institute and is on the advisory panel for the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Both the Hudson Institute and the ACSH are corporate-funded, including funding by ExxonMobil.

Should we believe a few corporate-funded "experts," or all the other scientists in the world?

STEVE RELLES