Responds to ‘The Immorality of Climate Science Denial’

To the Editor: 
Attributing extreme weather events to global warming is still open for debate.  For example, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a global warming advocate. NOAA publication, “Explaining Extremes of 2013 from a Climate Perspective” summarizes 16 extreme events, five of which show human-caused climate change increased the severity and likelihood of those events.  The other 11 extreme events show human influence was less clear, suggesting natural factors played a far more dominant role. Further, NOAA publication, “Explaining Extreme Events of 2012” summarizes 12 individual extreme events. 
“The report shows that the effects of natural weather and climate fluctuations played a key role in the intensity and evolution of many of the 2012 extreme events. However, in several events, the analyses revealed compelling evidence that human-caused climate change was a secondary factor contributing to the extreme event.”  Yearly reports of this nature go on and on with the same mixed results. 
Vanuatu is an 800-mile-long volcanic archipelago of about 80 relatively small islands straddling the complex geologic boundary between the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The islands are collapsing due to the unstable nature of the volcanic rocks, highly active faulting, and subduction. Four former islands are documented to have collapsed below sea level within recorded history. Vanuatu’s ultimate fate is controlled by plate tectonics, regardless of any sea level changes, up or down.
Earth scientists have studied flooding and flood deposits throughout the world for over 200 years.  The recent Missouri flooding event is nothing special with respect to recorded historical floods. Studies of post-1950 flood deposits along the upper Mississippi River show consistency and striking similarity with flood deposits back to at least 5,500 years ago. However, the difference today is the increased presence of man and man-made structures in storm areas, hence the destruction and lethal devastation. The population of Missouri in 1820 was 66,586 (statehood in 1821), the population in 2015 was 6,083,672.
There are at least 17 “natural” theories attributed to climate variation since Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago. Each of these theories has technical merit and academic backing. Today’s controversy revolves around the impact of human activities on Earth’s atmosphere over and above natural variations, particularly with respect to CO2 via burning of fossil hydrocarbons. Indeed, there are radical zealots on each side of this Anthropogenic Theory. There are reams of academic and professional papers on both sides, so the science is in fact “unsettled” and using words like immoral, deniers, skeptics, scammers, lunatics, and the like is unproductive and unscientific. 
The basic premise of the Anthropogenic Theory is simple; CO2 is controlling atmospheric temperature.  The crux of the matter boils down to cross-plot graphs of atmospheric temperature versus atmospheric CO2 for a given time period, based on the premise that temperature and CO2 are dependent variables having a cause and effect relationship.  In this case, temperature is a function of CO2.  The Anthropogenic theorists espouse that temperature rises as CO2 is added to the atmosphere. Anti-Anthropogenic theorists espouse that CO2 is absorbed into the atmosphere as temperature naturally increases (especially based on the known 9-month lag of CO2 increase after temperatures rise). In this case, CO2 is a function of temperature. Anti-Anthropogenic theorists also point out the numerous recorded times when CO2 concentrations were high and temperatures were low, and vice versa.
I highly recommend reviewing “A Brief History of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Record-Breaking” at www.wattsupwiththat.com.  The comments/discussions section is particularly lively and interesting. For those who are gluttons for punishment, “Global Warming” at www.justfacts.com will make your head spin.