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This is my response to a recent letter in the local newspaper:
Mr R Livermore ("Being green is not all it seems", 9 Dec) believes climate scientists "offer no concrete evidence for their doom-laden prophecy". The evidence exists and is very clear, but I'd wager he hasn't actually read it. He refers to a recent study which claimed that Antarctica is gaining ice. Putting aside some issues with that study which would take too long to go into here, note that the supposed gain of ice in Antarctica is far smaller than the loss of ice in Greenland and from glaciers around the world. Also note that the author of this study said "I know some of the climate deniers will jump on this, and say this means we don't have to worry as much as some people have been making out. It should not take away from the concern about climate warming". We also know that sea level has continued to rise - if Antarctica really is gaining ice then this means that we must have underestimated ice loss elsewhere. Mr Livermore blames warming on the Sun, but the Sun's energy output has actually decreased slightly in the last 40 years. Even the tiny minority of climate scientists who downplay global warming agree that increasing CO2 causes warming, they just dispute how much. The national science academies of every major country (including China and India) agree that humans are the cause of current climate change. It would be wonderful if they were wrong - there are so many other issues we have to deal with - but sadly Mr Livermore’s position is wishful thinking.
Mr R Livermore ("Being green is not all it seems", 9 Dec) believes climate scientists "offer no concrete evidence for their doom-laden prophecy". The evidence exists and is very clear, but I'd wager he hasn't actually read it. He refers to a recent study which claimed that Antarctica is gaining ice. Putting aside some issues with that study which would take too long to go into here, note that the supposed gain of ice in Antarctica is far smaller than the loss of ice in Greenland and from glaciers around the world. Also note that the author of this study said "I know some of the climate deniers will jump on this, and say this means we don't have to worry as much as some people have been making out. It should not take away from the concern about climate warming". We also know that sea level has continued to rise - if Antarctica really is gaining ice then this means that we must have underestimated ice loss elsewhere. Mr Livermore blames warming on the Sun, but the Sun's energy output has actually decreased slightly in the last 40 years. Even the tiny minority of climate scientists who downplay global warming agree that increasing CO2 causes warming, they just dispute how much. The national science academies of every major country (including China and India) agree that humans are the cause of current climate change. It would be wonderful if they were wrong - there are so many other issues we have to deal with - but sadly Mr Livermore’s position is wishful thinking.
