Climate Change Politics

A giant mushroom cloud of steam and ash explodes out of Mount Pinatubo volcano during its eruption as seen from inside the then U.S. military Clark Air Base in Angeles, located in Pampanga province, on June 12, 1991. Arlan Naeg/AFP via Getty Images

Dear Editor:

Recently we’ve seen a flurry of articles and initiatives, spawned by the White House, to refocus on climate change. Whether this is a move to distract from the ‘Obamacare’ morass, or simply to appease environmentalists, it is pure politics.

Far from the science “being settled,” there is a swelling “consensus” that, yes, over the long haul the climate is warming, but it is the sun—not man—that is driving it. The earth has been slowly warming, with ups and downs, since the last ice age. There has been no measurable warming for the last 17 years.

As for the CO₂ issue, our contribution is puny compared with that released continuously by approximately 100 active volcanoes around the globe. (Mt. Pinatubo released more CO₂ in its 1991 eruption than all of humanity contributes in five years.) The oceans contain roughly nine times more CO₂ (that’s what sea shells are made from) than does our atmosphere. When the ocean warms, as by solar radiation, it gives off CO₂; when it cools, it absorbs CO₂—simple chemistry. Thus the parallel charts, but note that atmospheric CO₂ always lags ocean temperature change.

It is not about climate; it is about alarming the populace into giving up its tax dollars and individual rights to a central authority to save it from a fictitious catastrophe. As H.L. Mencken once said, “The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to control it.”

Ted Williams Gloucester, Va.