Just this morning, I read a Columbus Dispatch letter-to-the-editor, entitled, "Climate-change believers go to great lengths," and felt the need to respond.
The letter was written by one Sam Jones of Westerville and goes like this:
"In her Saturday letter 'Action to stop warming must happen now,' state Sen. Charleta Tavares wrote that a new report by Environment Ohio's Research & Policy Center claims that Ohio plants emit as much carbon as the entire country of Kuwait. Could this be because Ohio is nearly six times larger than Kuwait (roughly 41,000 square miles vs. 7,000 square miles)? Duh.
Climate-change believers continue to deceive."
While the finding State Senator Tavares pointed out in her letter was a rather weak example of proof that climate-change exists and something needs to be done about it, since the statement is true, how is it deceptive? Also, judging by Mr. Jones' letter, I could title my rebuttal, "Climate-change deniers continue to cherry-pick."
NASA's website reports these findings (you know, from studies and stuff):
- "Global sea level rose about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in the last century. The rate in the last decade, however, is nearly double that of the last century."
- "All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880. Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years. Even though the 2000s witnessed a solar output decline resulting in an unusually deep solar minimum in 2007-2009, surface temperatures continue to increase."
- "The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969."
- "The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005."
- "Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades."
- "Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world - including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa."
- "The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events."
- "Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons per year."
Those are all just mere coincidences, right, Mr. Jones? The numbers were probably fabricated! Weather has always been a-changing! There was that one day when it snowed in January! It's all a conspiracy, I tell ya! Sure, sure sure... Mr. Jones and his ilk can go with the people paid to stir the pot and provoke fear (ahem... deceive...); I'll go with those paid to find and report facts by doing all kinds of science-y stuff.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2014/10/08/1-climate-change.html
http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
The letter was written by one Sam Jones of Westerville and goes like this:
"In her Saturday letter 'Action to stop warming must happen now,' state Sen. Charleta Tavares wrote that a new report by Environment Ohio's Research & Policy Center claims that Ohio plants emit as much carbon as the entire country of Kuwait. Could this be because Ohio is nearly six times larger than Kuwait (roughly 41,000 square miles vs. 7,000 square miles)? Duh.
Climate-change believers continue to deceive."
While the finding State Senator Tavares pointed out in her letter was a rather weak example of proof that climate-change exists and something needs to be done about it, since the statement is true, how is it deceptive? Also, judging by Mr. Jones' letter, I could title my rebuttal, "Climate-change deniers continue to cherry-pick."
NASA's website reports these findings (you know, from studies and stuff):
- "Global sea level rose about 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) in the last century. The rate in the last decade, however, is nearly double that of the last century."
- "All three major global surface temperature reconstructions show that Earth has warmed since 1880. Most of this warming has occurred since the 1970s, with the 20 warmest years having occurred since 1981 and with all 10 of the warmest years occurring in the past 12 years. Even though the 2000s witnessed a solar output decline resulting in an unusually deep solar minimum in 2007-2009, surface temperatures continue to increase."
- "The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969."
- "The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005."
- "Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades."
- "Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world - including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa."
- "The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events."
- "Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by about 2 billion tons per year."
Those are all just mere coincidences, right, Mr. Jones? The numbers were probably fabricated! Weather has always been a-changing! There was that one day when it snowed in January! It's all a conspiracy, I tell ya! Sure, sure sure... Mr. Jones and his ilk can go with the people paid to stir the pot and provoke fear (ahem... deceive...); I'll go with those paid to find and report facts by doing all kinds of science-y stuff.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2014/10/08/1-climate-change.html
http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
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