Take action before it’s too late
Editor, The Times:
Thomas Friedman’s column about “weird weather” supporting claims of climate change [“Today’s climate-change forecast: weird with a chance of meatheads,” Opinion, Feb. 18] notes the folly of the East Coast blizzard hullabaloo “proving” global warming is a hoax. All that snow is an example of exactly what scientists predict: As global average temperature — the warming that matters — continues to rise, the weather will be more and more “weird.”
This is Seattle’s warmest January and February on record. Globally, we’ve already been experiencing extreme weather of all kinds — heavy rain, flooding, hurricanes, snowstorms, droughts and forest fires. It is costing us and will cost us billions in the future.
Skeptics are trying to confuse the public about climate change. If they succeed, the Earth and its inhabitants will lose. Nothing can be gained by further delay. Sen. Maria Cantwell’s “cap and dividend” bill holds much promise for getting climate-change legislation back on track in the U.S. Senate. Her bill offers an improved framework for pricing carbon and speeding the transition to clean energy, which will create new jobs and help free the U.S. from dependence on foreign oil.
It’s time for the Senate and all of us to wake up and take action before it’s too late.
— Anne Engstrom, Seattle
Clearly a hoax
With the release of the so-called “Climate-Gate” documents, the cat’s out of the bag. Man-made global warming — or whatever you want to call it — is not “science” — its proponents “lost” their data so their results can’t be reproduced.
It’s not even a reasonable “theory” within a historical context — [just look at] the medieval warm period, the Little Ice Age. It’s an ultra left-wing political conspiracy intended to redistribute the wealth of the industrial west — break the back of the middle class — and impose a one-world, Soviet-style command economy and police state on us all.
Restating the deception in “simple language,” talking down to the ignorant peasants, is not going to work. Attempts to ridicule critics into silence — calling us “meatheads” — are not going to work. We peasants aren’t “confused.” The lie is as plain as the nose on Poncho’s face. We aren’t buying into Thomas Friedman’s slick fraud any longer. Stop pretending that if you ignore the truth, it will go away!
— Gerald D. Cline Jr., Seattle
Don’t know who to believe
It pains me to see that Thomas Friedman’s been reduced to the role of a name-calling, partisan hack, concerning the topic of climate change.
I find myself among the group that isn’t sure who or what to believe. Friedman wants a 50-page summary of the climate change “facts” with an appendix of wild claims and errors perpetrated by climate-change skeptics. Why not include the facts behind the skepticism and an appendix of wild claims and errors perpetrated by climate-change advocates?
His selective use of facts is transparent and citing China’s positive example is a bad joke. China might be investing in high-efficiency trains, but it is a leading polluter with no intention of signing a commitment to reduce its greenhouse gases. The Chinese know that would put them at a competitive disadvantage, which is why they want us to sign.
Is our climate changing? Of course. Is human activity part of the cause? Probably. Is human activity the main cause? We don’t know. Is carbon dioxide the only — or principle — gas contributing to climate change? Probably not.
We should continue to conserve, accelerate research on fuel alternatives, increase the use of nuclear power. But we shouldn’t legislate our country into a permanent back seat in global competition with policies like cap and trade.
— Mark Stratton, Bothell