From this planet
I would like to offer some background regarding the recent Feb. 15 letter to the editor “Not this planet.”
Few may realize that the letter’s author, Dr. Robert Bindschadler, is the former chief scientist of NASA’s Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory and past president of the International Glaciological Society.
He has led over 15 expeditions to Antarctica, where he studied the movement and acceleration of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, particularly the Pine Island Glacier.
This is the fastest-melting glacier in Antarctica, responsible for about 25 percent of Antarctica’s ice loss.
Such discharge into our oceans could have a significant impact on global sea-level rise over the coming century.
I mention these credentials because it is scientists like him who have been studying the causes and effects of climate change for years, through documented, verifiable and peer-reviewed research.
I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Dr. Bindschadler while in the Antarctic.
I have seen some of the effects of these changes with my own eyes.
You can debate the policy, or which direction our country should take to address climate change, but you cannot debate the basic science on which it is grounded.
There are too many experts like Dr. Bindschadler who have spent their lifetime proving otherwise.
David Lasorsa,
Port Angeles