Perhaps the writer carefully studied the issue and conducted on-site evaluations of 10,000-year-old ice cores in Antarctica. Perhaps he has debated the 97% of climate scientists who strongly support the idea that global climate change is happening, threatening disaster for our planet unless we modify our ways. 

Or, perhaps our letter writer has repeated some of the distortions spread throughout U.S. media by the American Petroleum Institute. These servants of the petrochemical industry and Saudi princes make excuses for the 40 billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere yearly. They are highly paid for their service. 

In the same manner, throughout the 1960s and 70s the American Tobacco Institute spent hundreds of millions of dollars to convince the American public that tobacco was completely safe for human consumption. Big Tobacco companies knew that their product was killing millions with lung cancer and heart disease, but money talks. 

Likewise, the petroleum industry has known for many years that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible for increasing climate instability. Some of Exxon’s own scientists have testified that they feel remorse that they were part of this massive fraud. (www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/exxon-climate-change-1981-climate-denier-funding) 

I suggest folks review material that refutes the absurd idea that climate change is not an immediate danger which human society must deal with decisively. (https://www.drawdown.org/climate-solutions-101) 

For example, the recent frigid weather throughout much of the U.S. was a direct result of the hyper warming of the Arctic (which is heating up 4 times as fast as the rest of the world), creating the well-understood polar vortex. This warming northern air mass pushes the jet stream into an unstable orbit around the Earth, forcing Arctic air south, creating historic freezing as far as Texas. 

Don’t believe the deliberate misinformation spread by Big Oil. Climate change is the challenge of our era. Build resilient communities before the next catastrophic weather challenges occur. 

Steve Wall 

Waynesville