Misrepresenting Global Warming 

Essay by Frank J. Regan (Has Kevin Williams got it right on Global Warming?)

          Kevin William states in one of his daily columns "Ice Shelves Often Break" on Monday (5/20/02) in the Democrat and Chronicle that blaming the breakup of large ice shelves in Antarctica on global warming is bad science. “Global warming is a theory” he admonishes his audience, whereas “climate change is a fact.” In fact, all the points he makes are well known by climatologists and inclusive within the theory of global warming.  The theory of global warming (remember evolution, the foundation of modern biology, is a theory that has withstood one-hundred and fifty years of rigorous scrutiny, despite its public controversy) accounts for the daily, yearly, and even millennial shift in climate change and predicts that within this systemic variability our planet is warming up.   

          A general warming trend within such a complex system as our planet’s weather makes predicting specific consequences difficult—which is why the theory, based on computer models of historical weather patterns and innumerable data, must be continually challenged by scientists.  Yes, challenged by scientists-- this my point: Arguing each event’s consistency with the theory, as say the dropping off of a large ice shelf in Antarctica, should be left to the experts.  (Why does Mr. Williams present his objections to global warming to the public and not his peers?)  Most of Mr. Williams’s audience does not have the instruments, or technical expertise to judge the accuracy of his statements. Remember that Mr. Williams’ position on global warming is in the minority—my goodness, even George Bush now accepts it.  

          When Kevin Williams uses his daily column in the D&C, his soapbox, to misrepresent a major environmental crisis, like global warming, as only the nervous opinions of some hotheads, he gives license to the uninformed members of his audience eager to avoid taking responsibility.  Where the public requires real solutions to profound environmental problems, Mr. Williams’ inaccurate remarks as an assumed expert on global climate change only cause confusion and inaction on what most experts believe is the biggest environmental problem that we face in the 21st century.     

           According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) “Global warming is real and underway. The mainstream scientific consensus on global warming is becoming clearer every day: changes in our climate are real and they are underway. The evidence that human-induced global warming is real is increasingly clear and compelling." Kevin Williams’s audience should go to the text of the Kyoto Protocol or the EPA’s Global Warming website (http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/) and learn about global warming. Before anyone accepts Mr. William’s arguments about global warming, they should familiarize themselves with the evidence that has convinced the experts.  Moreover, they should keep in mind that even the remote possibility of global warming, a reasonable assumption given the billions of vehicles and smokestacks spewing greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, could cause long-term havoc for their children.

Frank J. Regan

Why not read from the US National Assessment of Climate Change.  Overview: Northeast about how Global Warming will affect our area?