Letters to the Editor
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Global hot air
Your comments on the great global warming balloon were smack on, especially the warning about its potential negative effects on the cause of conservation in general. The evidence that we are, in fact, in a strong, long-term global warming cycle is at present somewhat ambiguous, and evidence that what warming can be observed is primarily caused by human activity is thin indeed. Most evidence of the latter is based not on actual observation and measurement, but on computer models. The attempt to quantify and model a system as overwhelmingly complex as that of the earth's surface, atmosphere and hydrosphere, with such limited and sketchy data as is available (even should the mechanics of the model be correct) is, to say the least, ambitious. As it happens, the models now widely used can't even account for our known recent (by geologic scale) past meteorological history. And how accurately can we predict next week's weather, much less the next century's?
I became a geologist, those many years ago, mainly because it let me walk in the woods and meditate on how the world is made, and actually get paid for it. Your descriptions of the joy to be found in contemplation of the natural world reminded me of what a good decision that was. My fear concerning the global warming hysteria is not that we will wreck the world's economy in pursuit of a chimera (won't happen), but that when the bubble inevitably bursts, it will tarnish the public's image of the entire conservationist agenda. Thanks for pointing that out.
Regards, Gerry