‘Climate clucker’ & proud
I am one of those “climate cluckers,” as the VND calls people who believe climate change is real and due greatly to man’s burning of fossil fuels.
We disagree with climate deniers, who believe warming is not a concern and a natural change. The deniers get their information from organizations such as the Heartland Institute, which is funded by Exxon, billionaire conservative Charles Koch and the Illinois Coal Association.
Heartland President Joe Bast wrote a 1998 article denying the dangers of cigarette smoke, stating, “The risk is either nonexistent or too small to be measured at any meaningful level.” Sounds like the same talking points the climate deniers use today.
The Heartland Institute and the deniers state that in Antarctica, which holds 90 percent of the world’s ice and 70 percent of the world’s fresh water, the sea ice is actually expanding. They don’t mention the kilometers-thick land ice has melted faster in the last 40 years than in the last 1,000 years.
The sea ice — only a meter thick — increases due to seasonal freezing and thawing. NASA climatologists confirmed this.
Scientists estimate that rising sea levels due to climate change will displace millions of people in the next century. I don’t believe everything I see or read, but I do believe scientists unaffiliated with big energy over those paid for by these groups.
Climate change is real. Denying it is equivalent to denying the Earth is round.
Joe Palumbo
Arnold