In response: ‘Let’s do the math’

Mr. Fernadez’s last letter states that I am entitled to my own opinion, but not entitled to my own facts. He then quotes the National Snow and Ice Data Center, saying that Arctic ice is depleting at a rate this year 61 percent faster than the average from 1981-2010.

Well, if he really read the article, which I have, he would see that it is also not a good idea to mislead by omission. What the article states is that while on the Atlantic side this is indeed happening, on the Pacific side there is a substantial growth of ice.

Also, even they do not attribute this to any type of global warming but to a natural shift in atmospheric circulation. In other words, sometimes even we here have hot summers and sometimes we have colder summers.

Gee, what a revelation.
But let’s take this a step further. Being a mechanical engineer by training, I know a “little bit” about math, and perhaps just a tad more than the average guy out there about science.

So, let’s do the math:
Present atmospheric CO2 levels are at the most 400 parts per million, which equates to .04 percent of atmospheric gases. That would give us a total tonnage in the atmosphere of 2.3 trillion tons of the stuff.

Current global production of CO2 equals 33 billion tons, of which even by the most conservative estimate 40 percent is absorbed by plant life (we won’t even count what the oceans absorb).

Thus, that leaves us with a net of about 20 billion tons per year. At that rate it will take 116 years to double the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, bringing it to a total of - hold your hats - .08 percent. Water vapor, by far the biggest greenhouse gas there is, dwarfs this, and is variable to a much greater percent than .08.

That is simple mathematics, and your climate change (gee, you guys are still calling it that, not global warming anymore.... I wonder why?) is much ado about nothing.

Finally, whether the polar bear is still listed on the endangered species list or not, its populations since 1993 have gone considerably up (in the Davis Straits alone up there by the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, populations have risen from 1,400 to more than 2,100).

I hope this is enough fact for Mr. Fernandez.

Jerald Berman
Warwick