I am seeing a great deal of discussion of global warming in the news media. There are also those who criticize global warming doubters. Let us hope that we always have those who doubt prevailing scientific “wisdom” and all other prevailing “wisdom.”
The problem is that there seems to be a total lack of understanding of the concept of human-caused warming in the news media. The measures promoted to stop global warming would not achieve that goal. The problem is that carbon dioxide persists in the atmosphere for a long time. The measures promoted to stop global warming would only gradually reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being added to the atmosphere over decades. These measures would not actually reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, only somewhat slow the increase. There is evidence that earth is warm enough at present to melt the permafrost in northern latitudes. This melting is releasing methane which is a far more potent form of greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. This means that the warming is probably already self-sustaining. If so, even if we totally stopped our carbon dioxide emissions today it would not stop the warming.
Predicting the future is always difficult and climate models are not known to be reliable. Whether this warming will create the disasters that some have forecast is difficult to ascertain.
Lee Dwelle
Lake Stevens
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
