Dear Editor;
This letter is to respond to Steven M. King’s letter published on May 28, 2014 (Global Warming Debunked; studies prove otherwise).
Steven brings out some very good points about global warming; however, it’s not useful to make this issue about Left vs. Right. This has been a long-term perfunctory (unthinking and careless) process for our country, in terms of wasted treasury, co-dependency with Middle East dictators, blood loss with supporting this dependence, and trends toward bedding down with large energy corporations. In order to supply our energy needs, both political parties have contributed to where we are today in terms of energy consumption, power generation, and fuel supplies.
President Nixon’s administration, back in the 70’s and during our first Arab oil embargo, should have led the way toward our countries energy independence. Instead Nixon’s administration and those who followed got in bed with Middle-East dictators and the rest is history. Unlike Europe and other countries, we have an abundance of fuel sources and relatively small population densities in this Hemisphere. We simply should NOT need ANY middle-eastern oil. Thankfully, we are currently producing more oil than we import, unlike previous decades. At least Nixon did create the Environmental Protection Administration and the Clean Air Act. I even helped to institute the first National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (N.P.D.E.S) at Gulf Power’s Plant Crist back in the mid-70’s.
Steven mentions that the earth’s temperature has not risen over the last 17 years, which is of course true. And I’d even add that during this period carbon dioxide levels were rising, not staying the same as Steven suggest at, “.04% of the earth’s atmosphere even while China and India are building coal-fired electrical plants in masses.” We’d be remiss to only look at relatively short timeframes (17 years) when trying to determine complicated issues such as global warming or to totally dismiss our polluting, consumption habits, which add to this warming trend.
The earth’s temperature has risen over one degree Fahrenheit over the last century. This sounds small but it does make a significant difference in increased activity levels with weather systems. Essentially the hotter the earth becomes the more moisture evaporation, creating more severe weather systems in terms of hurricanes and heavy rain events.
The eleven warmest years this century were 1980-1995, with 1995 being the warmest year. Severe weather events (greater than 2 inches of rain per day), which Steven addresses and we recently experienced with 20+ inches of rain, have increased by 20% over the last century. Overall precipitation (under 2 inches of rain per day) has increased approximately 6% this century. This long-term global warming is real and mostly concentrated at the poles; and both naturally occurring events and polluting technologies and practices are to blame to various degrees! Just how much each side contributes is anyone’s guess.
Steven brings up another cosmological point and talks about the naturally occurring climate changes being affected by the, “27,000 year wobble pattern orbit of the sun, solar activity, or the actual temperature of the sun.”
I would agree with him here that the suns activity level and temperature does affect weather systems here on earth. Also I’ll add that the sun has an average of 11 years (+/- 20%) cycle from solar minimum activity to solar maximum activity. The good news is we are approaching the end of solar maximum and with solar max, 0.3 to 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit can be added to our earth’s surface temperatures. Again, this doesn't sound like much but does have a noticeable and significant effect on our weather systems. With eruptions on the sun or in volcanoes here on earth, humans have no negative inputs to these natural influences or subsequent global warming effects.
The truth is no one can prove conclusively or has enough empirical evidence to determine the exact cause and effect of global weather systems. However, it doesn't take a lot of intuitive or critical thinking and observation skill to realize that we should think about how we are contributing to global warming. It’s environmentally and politically the responsible thing to do, regardless of naturally occurring weather events, to reduce not only our dependency on middle-east oil but also to actively engage clean, renewable, pollution-free, energy supplies.
Bill Calfee
Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Global warming not a left vs. right issue