I don’t know what planet the recent letter (“Politicians promote a manufactured crisis in climate change,” PDN, Feb. 5) refers to, but it is not this planet.
On that fantasy planet, U.N. temperature prediction models are “totally discredited,” Nils-Axel Morner is “the world’s most renowned sea level researcher” and climate change is a “manufactured crisis.”
Again, not this planet.
On this planet, our overuse of fossil fuels has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to levels not seen in the past million years.
Increased frequency of extreme events in this planet’s weather, acidification of this planet’s oceans and an accelerating rise of this planet’s seas are among the direct and unavoidable physical and chemical consequences, irrespective of one’s political position.
Tuning this message out changes neither physics nor chemistry.
It’s happening now and we have the ability to move toward a more resilient, sustainable future.
This goal is a common good we all can share and pass on to our children and grandchildren.
Political concerns such as “more taxes,” “more bureaucracy,” “public employee unions,” “more business for green energy companies,” and “the U.N.” can be included in the conversation about how to address the dangerous consequences of climate change, but misconstrued science must be left behind.
This planet’s community of climate science experts has clearly articulated the increased urgency of replacing excessive fossil fuel use with greener energy sources.
There is no credible alternative explanation for the myriad changes in climate we now are experiencing and there is serious work to be done.
Robert Bindschadler,
Quilcene