Look at facts before believing claims

A recent letter by Joseph Bast, president of the Heartland Institute, confidently mentioned how more than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition against the concept of global warming. That sounds impressive until you check out the names on the petition, as I and others did.

The petition, which was started by so-called The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, has been circulating and adding names since 1998. A Web site, thingsbreak.wordpress.com, points out that of the first five names on the petition, the fifth person is deceased, and the other four have no relevant publications related to climate change. In fact, they are either in fields unrelated to climate change (intelligent design, oncology, veterinary medicine or unknown).

This project is just smoke and mirrors sponsored by energy industries who don't want to see the status quo upset. They are depending on people to assume the numbers on the petition represent real scientists who actually study climate change, and that this massive number represents a huge rift in the scientific community. In both cases, such an assumption is wrong.

While earth does go through climate cycles and while we may at some point return to the ice age conditions that have characterized the past two million years, the last two hundred years, corresponding to the industrial revolution and use of fossil fuels, have seen an abnormal increase in atmospheric temperature. We can choose to minimize human impact on the planet by switching to alternative energy sources and a more sustainable lifestyle, and take ourselves out of the climate equation as much as possible, or we can ignore the warning signs reported frequently in this newspaper and continue to drill baby drill.

Unlike the people who are attempting to create the illusion of massive dissent on the issue, I would be very conservative when it comes to the environment on this planet, which is the only home we have.

Lee Mishkin

Earth Science Teacher, retired

Buffalo Grove