Killing global warming messenger

last updated: September 27, 2007 01:54:42 AM

In "Don't buy the hype on global warming" (Sept. 17, Page B-5), Jay Ambrose makes the common mistake of killing the messenger, Al Gore, whose prominence and passion have led him to add his voice to those of thousands of scientists worldwide. Gore didn't invent the science of studying ice-core samples taken worldwide that show carbon dioxide far exceeding anything in the last 600,000 years, as well as those samples showing rising temperatures.

Ambrose points out the few spikes in temperature before 1940 and says, "See there!" Had he been a scientist, he would have recognized nature's variabilities with or without human intervention and, looking at all science over the long run, would have come to the same conclusions that the vast majority of scientists have arrived at -- human activity in all its shapes and forms are driving the warming of the planet beyond anything ever recorded.

Ambrose is right about some of the directions we are following to achieve oil independence with regards to ethanol. This country and the world must identify all causes of warming and work at sensible solutions that don't create undue hardships on any one country. But solutions without some sacrifice are unrealistic.

WAYNE KIRKBRIDE

Twain Harte

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