In response: ‘What I should have said’

First, let me apologize to Mr. Berman for my poor choice of words in my response to his letter regarding climate change.

What I should have said was that given the real threat to society that global warming poses to our planet, people like Mr. Berman, who hold the view that climate change is a hoax, are part of the problem. This is because if we are to be successful in preventing what could be a world-wide catastrophe, we need to have as many people as possible cooperate and work together if we are to have any chance at all of succeeding.

The problem is also, in a sense, made more difficult by the Internet because with a little searching you can find support for literally any point of view or opinion.

So on the one hand, I understand why people might doubt that the reports supporting the idea of global warming are accurate.

However, one has to take into account what the potential effects would be if one opinion versus the other is implemented. By that I mean that if the global warming skeptics win the war of ideas and we decide as a nation, or world, not to take any steps to avoid it, that might be OK - if they turn out to be right.

However, if they are wrong, and the earth keeps heating up, there will likely be catastrophes worldwide.

On the other hand, if large enough numbers of us take some simple steps to attempt to stave it off, if we are wrong the worst thing that happens is that the earth is a much cleaner, healthier place to live.

In closing, I leave you with a quote from the web site Skeptical Science (skepticalscience.com), which is devoted to debunking falsehoods in the name of science:

A follow-up study by the Skeptical Science team of more than 12,000 peer-reviewed abstracts on the subjects of “global warming’ and “global climate change” published between 1991 and 2011 found that of the papers taking a position on the cause of global warming, over 97 percent agreed that humans are causing it.

One more thing, in response to the letter from Rose Tardif:

While Al Gore certainly did not invent the Internet, (nor did he ever claim to), he was instrumental in making it a reality by taking the initiative in Congress to push bills through that would allow the Internet to be constructed.

Richard Klein
Warwick