Fwd: Letter to the Editor - WSJ should be ashamed of itself

[Mark Roest]

Hello All,

You are invited to organize to put more pressure on the Wall Street Journal for its irresponsible policy on Climate Change. Here is a flash point.

Regards,

Mark

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vanessa Warheit <vwar...@me.com>
Date: Mon, May 13, 2013 at 5:51 PM
Subject: Letter to the Editor - WSJ should be ashamed of itself
To: wsj....@wsj.com
Cc: 350svo...@googlegroups.com, "Victoria Simarano, Climate Reality" <sup...@climatereality.com>, greenteamco...@yahoogroups.com, Greencom uucpa <gree...@uucpa.org>


Dear Wall Street Journal,

I am writing you in shock and dismay at your article of May 8, In Defense of Carbon Dioxide. Mssrs. Schmitt and Happer are sorely misguided, and way out of sync with the rest of the scientific community, in trying downplay the effects of CO2 pollution on our atmosphere. I would respectfully point out to them both that:

* observations of the earth's temperatures and weather patterns have shown consistent WARMING, globally. Claims to the contrary are pure fantasy.

* the earth's atmosphere is slightly more complex than a commercial greenhouse - for one thing, the increased levels of CO2 in our atmosphere cause increased moisture, which wreaks havoc on rain levels and weather patterns

* every major scientific society in the world has confirmed that, in fact, there IS a correlation between CO2 and climate disruption

* our human civilization was built on a set of environmental constraints that are about to be radically altered by all this extra CO2. So while dinosaurs and pleistocene-era plants might have found a hot earth comfy, and while they might have been unphased by the radically different coastlines and geography from those we all know today, human beings and the billions of other life forms (C3 and C4 systems notwithstanding) with whom we share our current-day planet may find it hard to adapt to such a radically different climate, with such a radically different geography, in such a short amount of time

* the RATE of change we are experiencing due to CO2 pollution is the most significant problem we are facing. It took the earth millions of years to get hot the last time - but this time it is happening within decades. Plants and animals, even those as clever and adaptable as humans, are unlikely to survive such a massive and cataclysmic change happening in such a short amount of time.

* while plants may do nicely with increased CO2, the oceans can't keep up and are rapidly becoming acidified, with terrible effects on marine life.

* analogies to crop yields during the dust bowl are disingenuous and totally irrelevant - crops planted during the 1930s were utterly different, genetically, from the crops we plant today. The amount of CO2 they are or aren't absorbing is the least of their differences.

To publish such a load of nonsense, at a time when CO2 levels have reached cataclysmic levels, is nothing short of criminal. These two gentlemen are either delusional or in the pocket of big oil, or both. Mr. Schmitt in particular, as a former astronaut, should be particularly ashamed of himself. As one of the few people given the privilege of seeing our fragile spaceship Earth from space, he should be doing everything in his power to protect life on our planet - not sabotage the work of so many who are trying so hard to save it.

Sincerely,

Vanessa Warheit
Palo Alto, California

Original article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323528404578452483656067190.html