Don't believe letter's false claims

The letter "Climate bill built on hasty decisions" continues the recent Daily Herald tradition of allowing a handful of people to turn Fence Post into Fantasy Post. The writer uses misinformation to discredit efforts to get a handle on climate change.

A scientist at the Field Museum compares our current human-triggered increase in CO2 levels to the volcanic-triggered increases 200 million years ago, at which time there was a mass extinction event and wonders how close we are to the tipping point of another such occurrence. At that time, 95 percent of land plants became extinct.

Dr. Alan Carlin of the EPA (whose major area of expertise is economics, not climate science) did write a 98 page report, but was not asked to; it was not part of his job. Large portions of his "report" were lifted from climate-change denier Web sites. A panel working on CO2 policy at EPA reviewed the 'report' and deemed it to be unsound.

Lisa Jackson of the EPA was correct in stating that U.S. Action alone will not impact CO2 levels, however she did not imply that we shouldn't continue to press other nations to work with us, as they will eventually have to. As the most powerful nation on earth, our job is to lead, to set an example; a job we relinquished during the past eight years.

The author goes on to falsely claim that 31,478 scientists signed a petition at a recent conference. This phony petition, which can be found online at oism.org/pproject has been circulating on the Internet since 1999.

There's something immediately suspicious about an endless list of names without degrees, organizational affiliations or areas of specialization attached.

It's not a question of "feeling guilty about being alive," it's about asking "what you can do for your country," a question not asked of us during the past eight years (and for a long time before that).

Lee Mishkin

Buffalo Grove