Dear Editor:
Responding to the March 27 article “From deluges to drought” conclusion climate change warming is almost all due to human activity, I don’t take issue with the fact that the climate is changing, or that human activity has increased greenhouse gases. I do take issue with the conclusion that recent climate changes are caused solely (or mostly) by human activity. Before you label me an anthropogenic climate denier, let’s review a few facts:
In its climate reports, the United Nations Panel on Intergovernmental Climate Change removed from the analysis the medieval warm period around 1100 AD, the little ice age between 1400 and 1850, the warming period from 1880 to 1940, and the temperature decline between 1940 and 1975. These climate changes were replaced with 900 years of stable global temperatures, causing the analysis to inappropriately conclude temperature increases must human-caused.
The IPCC original peer-reviewed 1996 climate report stated no study shows clear evidence that climate change can be attributed to specific causes (including human activity); however, this was deleted in the version made available to the public.
More recent IPCC reports rely heavily on surface thermometers in urban areas, ignore cold weather locations, replace floating drifter buoys with water bucket sampling in commercial shipping routes and ignore solar energy increases from 1980-2000; thus, skewing the results to make the earth appear to be rapidly warming.
Contrary to the IPCC reports, satellite data for the lower atmosphere over both land and oceans, the most reliable global and precise measurement of global temperatures since 1979, show almost no warming.
The IPCC admitted in 2013 that the temperature rise it predicted from 1998 to 2012 did not occur, even though CO2 levels rose 7%.
Many climate models ignore the effects of solar activity, the role of ocean currents, unexplained historical sea level rises and lowering, and historical temperature variations.
Sea levels have been rising at a constant rate — 400 feet since the last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago and, based on the last couple of centuries, an estimated 6 inches by 2100 — and cannot be tied to temperature changes or CO2 levels.
Historic data confirms CO2 concentrations in the past (before so-called human intervention) were up to 20 times greater than present value.
Historic data demonstrates CO2 increases follow warming trends, i.e., CO2 levels did not cause these warming trends.
Ice core data indicate historic climate fluctuations were much greater during periods when CO2 levels were lower.
Solar panels and windmills aren’t carbon neutral; they require resources to construct, transport and maintain.
Nuclear energy is the only currently available and realistic source that produces almost no greenhouse effect.
Unfortunately, climate policy has eclipsed climate science. Why? Climate policy is the source of money, power and control. In other words, if climate change is not human caused, we cannot regulate it; leaving politicians, academicians, influencers, and opportunists who benefit (economically, politically or professionally) from promoting anthropogenic climate change with no platform from which to shout regulate or perish.
We need to continue to study climate change, monitor human-induced changes to the environment and make science-based, rational decisions. We do not need to create artificial solutions or force arbitrary standards and coercive controls that waste energy, ration access and resources and distort economic decisions.
If you are genuinely interested in the facts behind climate science, I urge you to read the book “Hot Talk, Cold Science” by S. Fred Singer. The book does not deny climate change, it explains the facts noted above, and many more, and provides realistic solutions to a global conundrum.
Marjorie Conner
Deerfield, Ohio
