Reader Response

It’s Warmer, But Who Knows Cause?

Wilf Sommerkorn: Your comments about global warming in Utah Policy Daily struck an almost identical chord with me. I have long had an interest in weather and climate. As a young guy, I used to have my own backyard weather station. I took several climatology and meteorology courses in college, and I have a minor in geology. I am a closet storm chaser, trying to work out a good time to go visit my sister-in-law who lives on the Texas-Oklahoma border so I can chase some big supercells some day.

So given all that, I have had an intense interest in the whole topic of global warming and climate change for some time, reading what I can find on the topic that I think is objective and credible. And let me tell you, as of late, there is very little of what I consider to be objective on the topic out there.

My own conclusions, after reading what I can, is that there is no question that the earth seems to be warming up. There are glitches in the trend here and there, but overall it seems to be going up.

But what is the cause? Is it man-made activity? Through the last million years or so of earth’s history, climate has had regular up and down swings, warming up and cooling off. There are a variety of explanations for why that’s been happening, but bottom line is, nobody really knows. So, how can we with any certainty, given that history, say at this time that the cause is man-made? I don’t think we can. Yet look at all the rhetoric out there, and it’s become such a politically incorrect thing to say so.

Michael Crichton’s latest book is a good example. Crichton, who I think has a pretty decent scientific mind, thinks like we do, but he also sees what’s going on and, boy, is he taking it in the shorts for this book. I don’t think this one will be made into a Hollywood movie, what with all the Hollywood people so “politically correct” on the topic.

So. Where does that leave us? Well, let’s be cautious, just like you wrote. Hope we can do that, but given the course of HUMAN history, I’m not too optimistic.