The April 25 op-ed titled, “Global warming: An appeal to basic fairness,” is factually incorrect and misleading. The article is a bad argument for the fossil fuel industry, as to say don’t worry about climate change, pollution is good for you. Contrary to the writer’s opinions, climate science is not “a young science.” The Chinese scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095) observed climate change by studying fossilized bamboo. Edmund Halley mapped trade winds in 1686 and Ben Franklin was the first to map the gulf stream. The author stated the “earth has not warmed at all for the last 15 years” but he doesn’t site any source to back up his claim. According to NASA scientists, “2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long term trend of rising global temperatures.” Excluding 1998, “the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.” The author takes what James Hansen of NASA said out of context. Hansen said the “pace of warming appears to have slowed somewhat, describing a temporary standstill, (scientificamerican.com).” However, Hansen attributed the cooling to La Niña and noted that each past several decades has been hotter than the last and warming should pick up again.” On the decadal time scale, it’s going to get warmer because we know the planet is out of energy balance” Hansen said. The author recommends climatedepot.com for a single source on climate change which was created by CFACT, (Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow). Similar to the Cooler Heads Coalition and the National Consumer Coalition, CFACT has received $582,000 dollars from ExxonMobil since 1998, (exxonsecrets.org). Also mentioned in the article is the Heartland Institute. The Heartland Institute which also refutes the dangers of second hand smoke, is a member of the corporate bill mill, ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), which receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from billionaires like the Koch brothers, (sourcewatch.org).The author’s point of view is less a climate science dissenter’s than a playbook for the fossil fuel industry. Read more http://www.taosnews.com/opinion/article_9e590c26-c3d8-11e2-8a44-0019bb2963f4.html
