I thank Mr. Goddard for taking the time to write a many word response to my Mar. 22 letter in which I put forth some facts that you, the reader, might find helpful in making up your own mind on the question “Are we facing catastrophic climate change (aka Global Warming)?”

Mr. Goddard cntributes a science lesson and a wagon load of disparaging remarks about me (that’s OK). Goddard makes it clear he wants you to disregard the facts I put out (though he doesn’t dispute any of them or present any facts supporting his view).  Goddard does assure us that there is an “overwhelming body of observable verified facts” that say we are facing “catastrophe” (his word). Fair enough - give us two or three hard facts that we can verify, that nail down your case for “catastrophe”. We want to learn.

Meanwhile back to facts that we can draw conclusions from. First a source check alert!! Mr. Goddard took me to the woodshed for not providing the source of one of the facts I put out - namely that the earths average temperature has risen 0.75 degrees Centigrade in the last 100 years. He’s right, sources are important. I went back to the internet - the first two numbers that popped up for the earth temperature increase over the last 100 years (in degrees Centigrade) were - 0.74 (source IPCC) and 0.70 (source NOAA) (Google them if you want). Note: I have discovered there is a huge amount of false information on the internet about climate change/global warming - beware.

So again, to the reader, ask yourself, has warming in the ballpark of a 0.70 degree C increase over the last 100 year period been catastrophic? Is an increase of that magnitude likely, in your mind, to lead to catastrophe in the future? (that’s a 0.07 degree C increase in earth temperature per decade) We are told humanity is done for in 12 years if temperatures continue to increase like this. Do you believe that an increase in earth temperature in the ballpark of 0.07 degrees C over the coming 10 years is likely to wipe us out? Maybe you do. We can infer from his letter that Mr. Goddard does. Maybe you don’t. It’s your conclusion to draw and then either make a will or continue to be productive and enjoy life while doing all you reasonably can to care for our environment.

A bit of context: None of us has a thermometer at home that can come close to measuring a temperature change as small as 0.07 degrees C.  Even a research lab grade electronic thermistor can’t accurately read temperature changes smaller than 0.1 degree Centigrade. Clearly 0.07 degrees is a very very small temperature change.

Frank Peek

Alamosa