Global warming stays with new president

Because a low-level functionary in the current federal government made insulting remarks about the U.S. electorate, then global warming does not exist. Such is the, to be charitable, less-than-rigorous logic used by Martin Uttich in his letter of Nov. 15.

The fairly obvious answer to his statement is that the properties of carbon dioxide gas, the main driver of global warming, do not change as government administrations change. When the next president is sworn in, Mr. Uttich will find, to his dismay, I am sure, that the gas will go right on heating up the earth just as it is doing right now.

A point to be made is that understanding of this warming mechanism is not restricted to the upper reaches of academia, as Mr. Uttich suggests. A basic explanation of the effect of increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be found in any engineering undergraduate text book on radiative heat transfer.

Dick Page

Naperville