Reacting to Global Warming

Dear Editor: I’ve heard it all before. There’s a calamity looming that’s going to kill us all. Now the prophets of doom and gloom want us all to believe that we are the cause of global warming and if we don’t do something there will be catastrophic consequences.

The fact is that climate change is very complex and the science is still evolving. There are several factors that contribute to global warming and no one is entirely sure what the effects will be. But global warming has happened before and so has global cooling. Why is it that we get so alarmed that there is climate change? Do we really think that the global temperature should be constant year after year? Even decades?

Many people have come to believe that CO2 emissions are to blame for global warming. The solutions proposed to reduce CO2 emissions involve more government micro managing of the economy. Not surprising, given that it is those on the left that have embraced global warming as their cause. It’s a convenient cover to advance their political objectives of more government intrusion into every part of our lives. To them, individuals living in freedom are a menace to the environment so the answer is more laws and regulations that limit the choices we can make to live our lives the way we see fit. However it’s our freedom that has allowed us the best use of our creativity in solving problems and improving our lives. In the U.S., pollution levels have come down and people are living longer healthier lives than ever before.

There are noted scientists like Dr. William Gray who dispute the notion that CO2 emissions are the cause of global warming. We should not readily accept ‘solutions’ to an alleged problem that is likely more natural than it is man made. Especially when these ‘solutions’ are going to be costly in terms of resources and individual liberties. Instead of placing our trust in political leaders we need to place more trust in God. He has given us the resources, ingenuity and will to improve our material existence and that of others. What we need to do is be open to His graces so that we can purify our intentions and be the good stewards of this planet He is calling us to be. Alarmism and pessimism should have no place in our lives once we accept that God is a generous and caring Father, that we are limited and can’t know everything, and that the material world will end one day but it won’t be the end of the world.

Paul Cerni
Richmond Hill
 

 
Dear Editor: First, I am surprised but glad that The Tablet had the courage and foresight to print two excellent articles (April 7) on global warming. I cannot agree that the Bush Administration’s energy secretary Sam Bodinas is correct in his assessment that the U.S. is a small contributor. It has been written all over that we are the major contributor, more than all the other countries combined. But I’m sorry that no one is mentioning over population which will come into effect because we are dependent upon natural resources.

Surely, the Catholic religion does not think that God will miraculously cure the global warming while countries like China and India continue to overpopulate and the continent of Africa continues to struggle on a day-to-day basis just to survive? If God is the creator of this green earth, then we are not thinking of the future generations to come. We are selfish and we treat our food animals like machines. We are dependent upon foreign oil and we think that nature is always going to take care of itself. Well, it’s not going to happen.

The Republican Party is never one to embrace the environment. Everyone knows that when the Bush people leave, things are going to change for the environment, hopefully drastically.

In the meantime, I look at how the polar bears are struggling to live. Nobody mentions how the animals’ plight is a barometer as to what is to happen and going to happen if we don’t do something quickly. Their behavior and lifestyle tells us something. I know God didn’t put them here for us to abuse. God’s creatures can help us to survive if we just let them.

Thank you for restoring my faith in the Catholic religion.

Joan Silaco
Queens Village

Dear Editor: Recently, it was announced on the news that a 20-year scientific study had been completed which “proved” beyond doubt that global warming was an incontrovertible fact. Fine. Nothing wrong with that – except for what the report didn’t say.

The real scientists – those from academia who are entwined in politics or the entertainment industry or are arrogant enough to assume that the United States public is to blame for any anomaly perceived in nature – have a ho-hum attitude regarding the panic being foisted on all sides.

First, a 20-year period of time isn’t even a blip on the geographic screen. Twenty centuries would be more like it.

I am old enough to remember how one of the published “chicken littles” of “The Sky Is Falling” fame prophesied on talk shows and in print that it was a scientific certainty that palm tress would be growing in New York City by 1999 because of global warming. Enough said!

Consult historians and scientists who know their stuff and you will learn of the cyclical sunstorm activity that directly affects our climate. You will learn of past periods when shifts in climate occurred. Nothing new!

The fact that all the rabid pro-aborts are espousing our latest panic issue leads me to believe that we are recycling Malthus and the “population bomb” again. After all, a few generations have passed and the “too many people” heresy is ripe for resurfacing.

This is their hidden agenda: the world hasn’t enough resources for future generations; therefore artificial birth control and abortion must be actively promulgated to avert (the erroneously perceived) disaster. Also they see religion as a hindrance that must be subjugated so that those of superior intellect and knowledge can control an ignorant populace by promulgating strictures and laws and regulations that are designed to keep check on freedom.

All I can say to any person reading this is that our greatest resources are human beings, human life.

In biblical times, when whole populations thumbed their noses at the Creator, natural disasters were allowed to occur to make people realize that God is able to withdraw the many blessings he has given to the people he created and loves so dearly.

Today, we elect politicians who have declared war on the unborn. We worship and idolize persons who do shameful things on screen and allow teachers to teach shameful things to destroy our children’s innocence.

Our problems are not the use of fossil fuels or industrialization or global warming. Those are minor problems that do not require draconian measures.

Our problem is the anti-life agenda that has spawned all of these red herrings.
Here’s the challenge for you – pray each day for an end to the slaughter of the babies and for the restoration of the Judeo-Christian ethic as the foundation for our culture, and then walk tall as a child of God.

Ann O’Grady
The Bronx

Dear Editor: Thirty years ago, the NY Times warned of the coming of a new ice age. Today, an Al Gore movie claims man-made global warming (GW) represents a crisis and has made hurricanes more dangerous. On the other hand, a BBC documentary claims that GW is not man-made. 

Professor emeritus Bill Gray, considered the top U.S .hurricane expert, calls global warming a hoax. Where does this leave us? The complexity of climate science prevents us from knowing if GW is a threat or a cyclic event. If GW is real, we don’t know if it is man-made. If it is man-made, we don’t know if this is a major problem. 

If it is a major problem, we don’t know if there is anything we can do about it but to adapt. And consensus, a political term, does not enter the realm of science. Science is right, not sure, or wrong. 

There is no vote here. The complexity of climate science makes observation methods, data collection, hypothetical modeling, statistical analysis, and conclusions all unreliable. We can’t create a reliable equation for a simple cloud much less create complex models for the interaction of natural and man-made greenhouse gases, rainfall, ocean and wind currents, solar activities, etc. 
Under this cloud of uncertainty, we cannot make the rational decisions we need to so we can avoid causing more harm than good. 

Let’s face it, if we can’t reliably predict what the comparably less-complicated weather will be two weeks from now, how can we reliably predict what the more-complicated climate will be 100 years from now. 

Until climate science advances make predictions more reliable, we are better served directing our resources and efforts towards creating alternative energy sources.

Charles Coreschi
Brooklyn
Appreciating Lo

Appreciating Longfellow

Dear Editor: Thank you for the heartfelt tribute column (April 28) by Mr. Mulligan about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His observations comparing and contrasting what passed and passes for simple yet meaningful poetry were beautifully made. I hope it spurs your Tablet readership to explore and appreciate Longfellow’s poetry, although if their Catholic education was as thorough as mine, they already know.

Lisa Martorella
South Portland, ME