The Unpublished Letter

Last week a letter was published in the Garden Island disputing the science of climate change.  I sent in a rebuttal, but it was never published.  Since I put a good hour of my life into that letter, I feel like it needs to be seen by someone.  So, for the 17 unique visitors to this blog, here's my letter (I took the name of the original writer out, because it's a bit too much of a personal attack to have on a blog called Life, Love, and Awareness):

In a letter to the editor on 08/12, Mr. ___ dismisses the mountain of scientific evidence behind anthropogenic climate change as simply “anecdotal conditions.”  I am sorry Mr. ___, but you are wrong and your ignorance is staggering.  

The climate is warming beyond the range of natural variability.  The major cause of most of that warming is rising levels of Co2.  Carbon Dioxide levels are rising because we burn fossil fuels.  As we continue to burn fossil fuels, the warming will continue.  Over the next century, climate change represents a danger to human welfare and the environment.

That’s not just my liberal opinion or just the viewpoint of the subject of your letter’s attack, Michael Mann.  That’s the endorsed conclusions of: Nasa’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Academy of Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency, the American Institute of Physics, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the American Meteorological Society, and the equivalent scientific agencies of the following countries: China, France, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, and Malaysia, just to name a few.

With your letter, you single handedly dismiss the findings of nearly every scientific agency in the world.  Normally, I wouldn’t care what you believe.  But, when we need to be doing everything we can to fight climate change and reverse humanity’s course, we can’t put up with the ignorance that you spout.  We have one planet and one shot to make a difference.  We need a historically unprecedented shift in the way we view our relationship with the environment.  And Mr. _____, you’re not helping.  

*Edit-- The letter just got published today: The Garden Island