To the Editor:
So Herald Publisher Art Hall makes a case that humans aren’t causing global warming because it is really a natural phenomenon that happens periodically when the Earth and the Sun dance just a little to close to one another.
Hall bases this startling revelation on the work of a Serbian astronomer who died in 1958 (slide rule in hand, no doubt) and his in depth research from “Wikipedia and other sources.” Other sources? The National Enquirer, perhaps? X Files, Fox News? For those who are not familiar with Wikipedia, it is an Internet Web site that was started as basically a free encyclopedia — where anyone can go in and add, change, or edit anything at any time.
So if someone doesn’t think the Earth is 6 billion years old, well just go right ahead and edit it to say 6,000 years if that’s what they believe. In fact, Wikipedia contains so much inaccurate information, high school teachers and college professors won’t accept it as a legitimate resource for students.
The Washington Post even wrote an article on “The Top 10 Wikipedia Spins.” Interesting, if a reporter or editor in any newspaper in the country cited Wikipedia as a source for an article, he or she would be slapped upside the head and fired.
Unfortunately for Hall’s theory, a week after he wrote his column, a report was released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that left no doubt that man-made emissions from the burning of fossil fuels have “been responsible for the steady rise in atmospheric temperatures.”
This is a group of 2,500 of the world’s leading — and living scientists — who jointly made the statement. Hmmm 2,500 hundred leading scientists armed with supercomputers and the latest technology versus a decades-old dead Serbian? Well, you decide whom to believe.
Obviously Hall’s tale has no scientific basis. I’m pretty sure some of the 2,500 scientists took a stab at looking at natural explanations for global warming at some point in their research.
And let’s just say for fun that Hall’s explanation is correct. Then, doesn’t it make sense that if natural conditions are responsible for global warming, then wouldn’t humans compounding the problem just heat things up faster? My only conclusion is that Hall has acquired some land in Woodbine and is speculating that one day it may become beachfront property.
TOM HALLIGAN
West Cape May
