Plethora of evidence backs up climate change

This is in response to a June 22 letter in which the writer "suggests" Dick Durbin should retire for criticizing Republicans for supposedly ignoring climate change science. The writer claims that climate change is based on manipulated "junk science" and that the Earth is actually cooling. That is not true in the slightest.

There is a plethora of evidence and science supporting climate change (like the accurate prediction of this past winter's much heavier than normal snowfall), including the so-called "climate-gate" e-mails that deniers love to cite as some kind of smoking gun that shows climate change as a hoax. Most people are not well versed in statistics, which is why some think that it is wrong to "manipulate" raw data. It's not, because we need to know certain things not revealed by raw data, like whether there has been statistically significant warming or whether those results are based on chance or measurement error. This ignorance of statistics is also why people think something nefarious happened when the e-mails described using a trick. It wasn't a magician's trick intended to deceive, it was a cool statistical method like a skateboard trick. Most aggravating, the writer calls supporters of climate change regulations "cap and traitors."

Yes, everyone that disagrees with him on the issue must be some kind of traitor selling out their country. It couldn't be that those people are sincerely doing what they think is best for the country they love. Ironically, the letter shows that the writer doesn't understand Durbin's point about Republicans ignoring real science in favor of politics.

Philip Procento

Vernon Hills