{"id":345581,"date":"2010-02-19T19:33:01","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T00:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011132553_globalwarmingmorelikeweirding.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-02-19T19:33:01","modified_gmt":"2010-02-20T00:33:01","slug":"global-warming-more-like-weirding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/345581","title":{"rendered":"Global warming: more like ‘weirding’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Take action before it\u2019s too late<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

Thomas Friedman\u2019s column about \u201cweird weather\u201d supporting claims of climate change [\u201cToday\u2019s climate-change forecast: weird with a chance of meatheads,\u201d Opinion, Feb. 18] notes the folly of the East Coast blizzard hullabaloo \u201cproving\u201d global warming is a hoax. All that snow is an example of exactly what scientists predict: As global average temperature \u2014 the warming that matters \u2014 continues to rise, the weather will be more and more \u201cweird.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Seattle\u2019s warmest January and February on record. Globally, we\u2019ve already been experiencing extreme weather of all kinds \u2014 heavy rain, flooding, hurricanes, snowstorms, droughts and forest fires. It is costing us and will cost us billions in the future.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s \u201ccap and dividend\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for the Senate and all of us to wake up and take action before it\u2019s too late. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 Anne Engstrom, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Clearly a hoax<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the release of the so-called \u201cClimate-Gate\u201d documents, the cat\u2019s out of the bag. Man-made global warming \u2014 or whatever you want to call it \u2014 is not \u201cscience\u201d \u2014 its proponents \u201clost\u201d their data so their results can\u2019t be reproduced.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not even a reasonable \u201ctheory\u201d within a historical context \u2014 [just look at] the medieval warm period, the Little Ice Age. It\u2019s an ultra left-wing political conspiracy intended to redistribute the wealth of the industrial west \u2014 break the back of the middle class \u2014 and impose a one-world, Soviet-style command economy and police state on us all.<\/p>\n

Restating the deception in \u201csimple language,\u201d talking down to the ignorant peasants, is not going to work. Attempts to ridicule critics into silence \u2014 calling us \u201cmeatheads\u201d \u2014 are not going to work. We peasants aren\u2019t \u201cconfused.\u201d The lie is as plain as the nose on Poncho\u2019s face. We aren\u2019t buying into Thomas Friedman\u2019s slick fraud any longer. Stop pretending that if you ignore the truth, it will go away!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Gerald D. Cline Jr., Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t know who to believe<\/strong><\/p>\n

It pains me to see that Thomas Friedman\u2019s been reduced to the role of a name-calling, partisan hack, concerning the topic of climate change.<\/p>\n

I find myself among the group that isn\u2019t sure who or what to believe. Friedman wants a 50-page summary of the climate change \u201cfacts\u201d 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?<\/p>\n

His selective use of facts is transparent and citing China\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Is our climate changing? Of course. Is human activity part of the cause? Probably. Is human activity the main cause? We don\u2019t know. Is carbon dioxide the only \u2014 or principle \u2014 gas contributing to climate change? Probably not.<\/p>\n

We should continue to conserve, accelerate research on fuel alternatives, increase the use of nuclear power. But we shouldn\u2019t legislate our country into a permanent back seat in global competition with policies like cap and trade.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Stratton, Bothell<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Take action before it\u2019s too late Editor, The Times: Thomas Friedman\u2019s column about \u201cweird weather\u201d supporting claims of climate change [\u201cToday\u2019s climate-change forecast: weird with a chance of meatheads,\u201d Opinion, Feb. 18] notes the folly of the East Coast blizzard hullabaloo \u201cproving\u201d global warming is a hoax. All that snow is an example of exactly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}