Dear editor,
Re: Michael Madsen’s letter, Climate Proponents cherry-pick stats (May 17)
Michael Madsen quotes Benny Peiser’s critique of Naomi Oreskes’ work. But Peiser has retracted his criticism of Oreskes.
“I do not think anyone is questioning that we are in a period of global warming. Neither do I doubt that the overwhelming majority of climatologists is agreed that the current warming period is mostly due to human impact. …..” -Benny Peiser
Professor Peiser is a social scientist who was rightly concerned about mass hysteria and had the courage to admit he was wrong in that critique. Does Michael Madsen have the same admirable courage as the man he quoted?
Climate change denial arose quite naturally because it can be scary to contemplate and because we are all complicit. We feel helpless and guilty. It is much easier to change our belief than to accept and adjust.
Anthropogenic climate change is only one of the complex changes around this spike in CO2 from our fossil fuel gluttony. But the world is not ending, and it is still incredibly beautiful. We are lucky to live at this point in history but we should do what we can to give our successors the same opportunities.
Even if it turns out that the three per cent, i.e. the deniers, are correct, there are many other reasons to reduce our fossil fuel consumption.
1. It will save you money.
2. It leaves more of an extremely valuable non-renewable resource for our descendants.
3. The fossil fuels would be very handy when the next ice age arrives. (Now don’t go panicky over that. Humans survived several ice ages already.)
There are many things you can do to help:
1. drive less
2. reduce flying
3. reduce hot water consumption
4. smile
Glen Staples
Courtenay