On Thursday, W.T. “Ted” Hinds made a great point in regard to climate change discussions, that we should “Be careful.” It’s ironic really, when the people he argues against are the very people who are trying to urge caution. Unfortunately, he does not take his own advice when it comes to the this divisive topic of climate change, which he thinks he is qualified to write of.

I will admit I, too, am not qualified to talk about it in such detail as climatologists do, because I am not a climatologist, and nor would I want to be one. But I am an avid logician and have studied physics to a great detail. I’ve read a great deal of books and articles in this field, and have in my time run more than a handful of experiments that investigate the details of climatology. I can further tell you that we should very definitely be careful.

Mr. Hinds references an article that disputes the claim that 97 percent of climatologists agree about global warming being a human-created issue, instead proclaiming only 0.3 percent agreement. I wish to point out the article he uses to back his claim looks at all articles ever written, including some that are not published and peer reviewed, about the climate, and finds only 0.3 percent of them claim global warming is caused by man.

In that case, then, if I take all the papers ever written concerning science, and found only 0.3 percent of them ever mention gravity, could I then claim that gravity doesn’t exist?

Climate change deniers, like Mr. Hines, also often claim that “the left” and scientists are in this grand conspiracy to take over the energy sector with their regulations and renewable competition. Others claim that the big oil corporations are doing the exact opposite to keep control of their profits. I don’t know who is right any more, but here are some things I do know:

There are about 7.3 billion people

Every motor vehicle works by burning complex hydrocarbons in the presence of oxygen, producing carbon dioxide and water.

Running a simple experiment with two identical bags and two identical thermometers, anyone can confirm air with more CO2 gets hotter in sunlight. Google it for instructions.

With more people, owning more cars, using more electricity from coal-powered plants, and more deforestation, will produce more CO2 than ever before in our recorded history. We are running a global experiment, with no intention of controlling it if it starts to ruin our lab, the Earth. Now I don’t know about you, but I think in this situation, we should indeed be very careful.

Julian Hershey
Gainesville

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