Cook County News Herald

Do scientists really know what causes global warming?


In the June 22nd Letters to the Editor, Dr. John Abraham attacked a letter from Chuck Flickinger and in the process, did a nice job flogging science in general.

By stating, “Humans are causing climate change, period.” And “We scientists know the cause, we also know that the sun is not the reason for warming,” you are dismissing so much important and ongoing research by thousands of scientists worldwide who are trying to unravel the mysteries of ocean currents, cloud behavior, plate climatology, underwater volcanoes, other greenhouse gasses and, of course, solar activity.

As a climate scientist, you are undoubtedly aware of this, yet you resort to a belittling and condescending tone to repeatedly tell Mr. Flickinger how wrong he is, and to refer to theories about the sun as “false” and “a fantasy.” Recently, two Norwegian scientists published a groundbreaking paper in New Astronomy showing a very strong correlation between solar activity and Earth’s climate. (Yndestadt & Solheim, 2017)

And from NOAA’s website, “But overall, when examining Earth on a global scale, and over long periods of time, it is certain that the solar energy output does have an impact on the Earth’s climate.” Through mid-October 2018, there were 368 scientific papers published suggesting that humans are not the only cause of climate change.

And since 2012 there have been an annual average of well over 100 peerreviewed scientific papers published that show a clear solar impact on climate change.

One of science’s main purposes is to further the knowledge and understanding of our world, not stifle it. Gathering together a group of colleagues (your Climate Change Rapid Response Team) to berate into silence any theory you don’t agree with goes against everything science stands for, and is very Stalin-esque, and you do this with a religious fervor. Why is that? Maybe instead of trying to shut down debate, let’s see where the science takes us.

Greg C. Gecas

Gunflint Lake

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