Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007 | Dear Editor/Rob Davis,
I’m writing in response to the interview article with Dr. Richard Somerville regarding “climate change.” I will stipulate that Dr. Somerville and many other climatologists are correct in their assessments that the average temperature over the surface of the earth is presently increasing. I will also stipulate that human habits could be one of many factors adding to the increase. With that said, I have to ask Rob to call Dr. Somerville and ask two questions:
1) Why have scientists decided that the current temperature of the earth is somehow “perfect” now and that we should do whatever is required to keep it at this temperature? I’ve seen lots of “bad weather” directly causing hundreds of thousands of deaths over my past 48 years on Earth, along with failed crops, mass starvation and disease. This is with the status quo “perfect” temperature they say we need to maintain. Since there is no argument that the temperature has been much lower, and much higher in geologic history!
What if science had decided at some point in the distant past that it should be kept constant during say, the Ice Age or some other time when it was much warmer than today? What makes us so right or special? In a way it seems arrogant.
2) Since science largely assumes that evolution is the primary method of biological progress, and environmental change is a major impetus for evolution, why would we want to keep the environment constant and thereby slow or stop the natural evolutionary progress at this point in history? What new “wonder plant” or animal species would we be impeding?
The oceans rise and fall. We’ve been taught and can observe evidence that many of the world’s mountain ranges were once under water. Did we cause that too? Could we have stopped it from happening? Has man caused or been able to stop the earth’s many magnetic pole reversals? Axis shifts? Volcanic eruptions? Catastrophic meteor impacts? None of our world’s shorelines are constant, but change even from day to day. If the oceans rise, sensible people will move to higher ground.
I like a clean, natural environment. Instead of scientists working to prove that man is ruining the planet by living and breathing, I would appreciate them leading by example and working on cost-effective alternative technologies to produce a “greener” Earth.