Proposed law that global warming is beneficial to business is ludicrous
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Editor,
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but everyone is not entitled to their own facts. Facts are the way the world is. When scientists come to a consensus, and we deny it, it is like declaring that the world is not round, but flat.
An overwhelming consensus of the world’s climate scientists agree that the world’s climate has warmed dramatically, due to increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The increases in those gases have been tied definitively to human burning of fossil fuels (mainly coal and oil). Not one single peer-reviewed article in a professional climate science journal has disputed these critical conclusions.
For all of human history prior to the industrial revolution, the average CO2 level was about 280 parts per million. We have now reached about 390 parts per million. Climatologists are warning us that we may be reaching tipping points, when warming will become an irreversible cycle with catastrophic effects.
Non-expert opinions may differ, but that’s not science. For over twenty years, the oil industry has funded the biggest deniers of global warming with the explicit goal of creating enough doubt to obstruct effective action. A survey carried out by the UK’s Royal Society, for example, found that in 2005 ExxonMobil distributed $2.9 million to 39 groups that “misrepresented the science of climate change by outright denial of the evidence.”
So we should all be alarmed when our representative in Helena chooses to waste precious Montanans’ money and time to try to make into law his own opinion, as if he can negate reality. At a time when our world faces one of the biggest challenges of its existence: the excessive heating of our planet so that species like ourselves will no longer be able to survive, Joe Read tries to make a law that “(a) global warming is beneficial to the welfare and business climate of Montana; (b) reasonable amounts of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere have no verifiable impacts on the environment.”
Joe Read’s law could make our state the laughing stock of the world. The repercussions of the climate crisis are no joke. Here in Montana, some of the main predicted effects include: dramatic reductions in water supplies in late summer and fall (as more precipitation falls as rain rather than snow), which will cause serious harm to agriculture and fisheries, and big increases in the frequency and severity of forest fires. There may be more fires for him to fight, but the extreme weather patterns will cause (have already caused) many natural disasters that will take a huge toll on our economy.
We are truly a backward people if we subscribe to irresponsible and ignorant opinions like Mr. Read’s, rather than facing reality and stepping up to the challenge of the future. We will lose money if we do not accept reality, and bet instead on hopes or fears.
Thinking clearly in times of crisis is important. Let’s not muddle through this, but choose policy makers who recognize reality for what it is, and know the difference between fact and opinion.
Carolyn Beecher
Ronan
