ChiTrib Editorial: ....Climate change is real"

Voice of the People, Chicago Tribune

Gentlepeople:

The Chicago Tribune editorial “No denying it /Climate change
is real”[Friday 17 August] says “in 2010, the National
Academy of Sciences unequivocally warned: 'A strong,
credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change
is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses
significant risks for a broad range of human and natural
systems.'"

Five paragraphs later you write: “Climate is complex and
doesn't yield easily to computer models and scientific
calculations. Scientists won't ever be able to predict with
100 percent certainty how bad warming will get....”What
happened to 'unequivocally'?

And you doubt computer models? They're the backbone of the
whole case for climate change.  What is never admitted is the
pathetically small set of past data on which to build the case
for global warming.

This is demonstrated by a mathematical model projecting the
planet's 4.5 billion year age on an 80-year human lifetime.
Such a model shows one year of earth time equivalent to
0.562 seconds of an 80-year human life span. This means
humans first appeared in our model earth 39 days ago. They
had no idea of measuring temperature before Galileo's 1593
thermometer invention, 4 minutes ago to our senior citizen.,
Discovery of carbon dioxide in 1630? 3 minutes 30 seconds
ago.

If a doctor takes a senior citizens blood pressures and got 120
over 80, took it again in five minutes and it was 124 over 76,
would she call an ambulance?

The editorial also refers to “rising sea levels, temperature
changes and retreating polar ice...” as convincing evidence of
global warming. You might want to be careful with this one:
On Sunday 19 August 2000 a prominent east coast newspaper
said: "The thick ice that has for ages covered the Arctic Ocean
at the pole has turned to water, recent visitors there reported
yesterday. At least for the time being, an ice-free patch of
ocean about a mile wide has opened at the very top of the
world, something that has presumably never before been seen
by humans and is more evidence that global warming may be
real and already affecting climate." Ten days later they printed
a correction: "A front-page article in the Aug 19, 2000 edition... about the sighting of open water at the North Pole misstated the normal conditions of the sea ice
there.... A clear spot has probably opened at the pole before,
scientists say.... The lack of ice at the pole is not necessarily
related to global warming.” You can look it up.

Arnold H Nelson in Chicago ah_nelson@yahoo.com