‘Global Warming Swindle’ falls short of telling the whole story
Mr. Wiens’ recent letter implores people to become better educated regarding global warming. I wholeheartedly agree; I only wish he had used scientifically accurate information.
Mr. Wiens first states that solar activity has been increasing for the last 30-50 years, thus causing the rise in global temperatures. This is the same statistic used in the documentary he mentions, “The Great Global Warming Swindle.”
There’s one problem: the scientific study that the documentary cites also says that solar activity cannot account for rising temperatures after 1975. At least five other studies published in the last two years support this conclusion. Therefore, other causes are responsible for the warming we are seeing, i.e. greenhouse gas emissions from human activity.
Mr. Wiens points out that rising CO2 concentrations are the consequence of rising temperatures. This is partly true and also largely irrelevant. Warming trends typically take around 5,000 years. Studies have shown that carbon concentrations lag warming for the first 800 years.
As carbon dioxide concentrations rise the earth traps more heat, thus increasing the warming cycle. To put it another way, CO2 doesn’t initiate warming cycles but amplifies them once under way. Our atmosphere currently has about 35 percent higher carbon dioxide concentrations than pre-industrial levels. Ice-cores show that atmospheric CO2 concentrations are higher than they have been in the last 650,000 years and probably higher than anytime in the last 3-5 million years.
Finally, Mr. Wiens mentions a lush Greenland as evidence of the natural cycles of warming and cooling our planet goes through. Again, he is partly right. The earth certainly goes through natural cycles of warming and cooling. This is well documented and understood. Greenland, however, is a poor example.
First, it represents a single geographic location, which cannot be used as a proxy for the entire planet. Second, Greenland was never “lush.”
Ice caps cover 80 percent of the land and have been there for hundreds of thousands of years. Erik the Red called it Greenland to attract his kin to the island, but it was a harsh existence that didn’t work out.
Accurate information regarding global climate change is out there. I recommend the IPCC 2007 Report, of which a summary is being published this month.
Cameron Peters
Suquamish
Bellringer Fund
Donation bar has been raised for 2007
As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches we begin to think about the annual fundraising drive for the North Kitsap Bellringer Fund. The Bellringer Fund was founded by Frank and Mabel Raab 56 years ago to assist those less fortunate within our community. From the beginning the community has been very generous in providing the resources to fulfill our mission.
Over the last year we have received over 300 requests for assistance. In the last week we received 12 such requests. Although we are not able to assist with every need, we make every attempt to assure families in the community that they will have the basic necessities. The fund is staffed by volunteers so that over 99 percent of the money raised is returned to the community.
Our goal for this year is to raise $35,000. We recently received a donation of $1,000 from the Lockheed Martin Employees Foundation to kick off our fundraising drive.
We greatly appreciate the efforts of you, your staff and publishers in helping us achieve our fundraising goal each year. As you know we have exceeded our goals for the last several years and we could only dream to have that occur again.
This year donations can be mailed to the Bellringer Fund, P.O. Box 1244, Poulsbo, WA, 98370 or hand delivered to the 7th Avenue branch of Frontier Bank or the Herald.
We hope everyone has a joyous holiday season.
Sincerely,
Poulsbo Lions Raab Foundation
Bellringer Fund
Poulsbo
Dog Attack
Herald irresponsible in running letter
While it is your right to publish any and all non-libelous and decent letters to the editor, I think you went irresponsibly beyond bounds by printing a letter on Nov. 10 about the dog attack entitled “Facts were omitted in media’s coverage.”
This letter is basically an unsubstantiated personal attack on the credibility of the victim and neighbors.
What is known is that the dog owner pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to control an animal declared potentially dangerous.
There was no trial. The “facts” stated by the writer are only her opinions. Each one of these opinions could be rebutted, and other instances of the dog’s aggressive behavior and owner’s lack of responsibility could be brought out by other people in a public forum such as your newspaper. However, this would serve no purpose except possibly to further inflame a contentious issue which should have been settled by the guilty plea and sentencing.
Furthermore, you should have clarified that the letter writer from Kingston shares the same name as the victim who resides in Poulsbo. An explanation and apology might clarify this confusion in the minds of some of your readers.
The letter is an example of inappropriate civil discourse. Please refrain from publishing this type of letter which inappropriately impugns the integrity of individuals in the community.
Thank you,
Tom Anderson
Poulsbo
Why did media only tell half the story?
Why would the media only print one side of a story?
Is it in collusion with the county government, or do they fear retaliation from the government?
Perhaps it was just easier to get one side of the story, but Colleen Smith (of Kingston) raised many very good points in her Nov. 10 Letter to the Editor.
If I have this right, a county employee walked through a gate marked with a no trespassing sign without contacting the owner of the property and got attacked by a dog in the yard. The county employee then filed charges against the dog owner and the owner was prosecuted.
I know of many cases where Kitsap county officials have trespassed on private property going so far as to peer into windows trying to collect incriminating data for something as trivial as an alleged zoning violation when none existed.
What is to stop Big Brother from peeking into your windows? With the corrupt state of the Kitsap County Prosecutors office, apparently nothing!
Dan Goebel
Keyport
