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Dear Editor,
I would like to thank Mic Mead, as he wrote in his letter on Jan. 30, for having the courage to speak out against the dogma of a current climate catastrophe. He joins those few brave scientists like Princton’s Dr. William Happer, environmentalist Michael Shellenberger with his new book Apocalypse Never, Australian geologist and professor emeritus of earth sciences Ian Plimer, former NOAA scientist who testified before Congress on climate; Tony Heller (avoids using his real name), even environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg has been more measured and circumspect regarding climate alarmism, just to name a few credible scientists.
Years ago, climate alarmism became elevated to existential and apocalyptic. Then the climate data manipulation scandal at the University of East Anglia became public, prompting climatologist Patrick J. Michaels to say, “This is not a smoking gun, this is a mushroom cloud.”
Rather than just being compliant and accepting the dogma, as well as the billions of tax dollars spent, and to be spent, I began studying the subject. My observation is this: If your science is that good, you shouldn’t have to threaten people to accept it. I’ve read the scientist listed, but one of the most gripping data points was presented by Randall Carlson from the Greenland ice cores. We should be joyed and thank God the last three thousand years have been in the climate sweet spot compared with the last one hundred thousand years where volcanism and comet fragments have radically and often violently altered earth’s climate. If anything, we should be concerned that the one-hundred-thousand-year chart clearly indicates a bias to planet cooling although not alarmingly possibly because of higher CO2 levels.
Some may recall several years ago the made-for-TV documentary on the sinking of the Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean due to climate change. Although last year we learned the Maldives are in crisis, not because the islands are sinking, but because property values have skyrocketed with wealthy Asians, Europeans, and Americans, along with resort companies, buying up the Maldives property to the point where locals can’t afford to live in their own country. What do these elites know that we don’t know? Does that sound like sinking islands? I think not.
I believe most rational people support cleaner air and water regulations. But that is a far different discussion and shouldn’t be confused with climate crisis. If environmental activists want to attack an existential threat, why not focus their rage on the growing island of floating plastic garbage in the Pacific Ocean where it’s reported that plastic molecules are actually changing the DNA of wildlife, including what we consume? This environmental calamity is receiving almost zero coverage. But it’s projected that for the U.S. taxpayer cost of one Solyndra Corporation, this problem could possibly be solved.
Also requiring help is the underfunded Comet Research Group, where limited available resources allow both them and NASA to find and track only larger Near Earth Objects. Look at NASA’s list of known NEOs for 2021. There are no resources to identify smaller but deadly threats. Last September, an NEO was discovered late and came very close. It was about the size of the comet fragment that created the Tunguska Event, an airburst over Siberia that flattened over 2,100 km of old growth forest. If one of those small NEOs comes in over a populated area, the loss of life and climate impact would be unimaginable! One of the scientists at CRG said, “The fixation on climate change is like being stuck in a car on a railroad crossing and arguing about the radio station.”
I no longer have unrealistic expectations that people will study both sides of this subject and have an epiphany about climate crisis. People “claim” that’s already been done. Climate crisis has become the religion for too many by now. I am only hoping that scientists like Mr. Mead won’t be censored for their views. However, it’s becoming alarmingly obvious that is changing too.
George Hodgson
Noblesville