Letter to NY Times Editor
At last, the New York Times publishes a letter from an informed climate change skeptic. Alexander McKay’s letter (6/11/17) was a breath of fresh air in the otherwise stale regurgitations of environmental propagandists that usually appear in the Times.Â
A review of the totality of the data available shows that the supposition that atmospheric CO2 is the main driver of climate is false, and that human emissions do not control atmospheric CO2.
It is controlled by natural sources and sinks: the cold oceans that absorb it, the warm oceans that emit it, photosynthesis, vegetative decay, volcanic emissions, etc. Fifty times more CO2 resides in the ocean in a readily available form as is present in the atmosphere. Other reservoirs are in limestone formations and in the exoskeletons of some marine life.
Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant. It is an essential ingredient in the Earth’s ecosystem on which all life depends via its role in photosynthesis. Confusing it with real pollutant like SOx, NOx, particulates, heavy metals etc., is a malevolent falsehood.
Trump may actually be the instrument that restores the nation to its senses about climate change. Withdrawing from the Paris accord is the one good thing he has done in his Presidency, albeit for the wrong reasons. As McKay notes: “With or without life on Earth, climate rages. The one constant on climate is change….ice ages come and go, seas rise and fall…”.
With all the fuss about climate change, where is its scientific definition? How significant for example, is a 1 C rise in average temperature of the Earth compare to the 50 C change that occurs diurnally or seasonally for any given station? Is that small 1 C change really climate change or is it just a normal fluctuation?
Martin Hertzberg
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