Climate Denial -Response to an Opinion called "Unsettled", Newport NewsTimes, August 5, 2015

Response to an Opinion called "Unsettled", Newport NewsTimes, August 5, 2015

We are very grateful to Rep. Gomberg and Senator Roblan for their leadership -and to the 2015 Oregon State Legislature overall in this past session. While Mr. Folkers note appears fittingly in the "Opinion" section -I do hope the NewTimes will follow with at least 97 peer-reviewed articles written by Climatologists that have not been paid by Big Oil or Koch front groups to deceive the American public about climate change.

I'm not sure where SB941 (Background checks for gun sales) fits into an opinion about climate change -however every responsible gun owner (and law enforcement representative) I know would prefer to keep guns out of the hands of the emotionally disturbed, people with restraining orders and convicted felons. While legislation certainly provides no guarantee -it makes access to guns more challenging. When it is more difficult to obtain and possess a weapon -gun related crimes drop significantly -all around the world. This is statistical fact.

Climate change is not a political issue at all. Based upon his disrespectful statement about former VP Al Gore it is clear to me that Mr. Folkers has been deceived into believing that it is. Rigorously collected trending data from NASA and the Climatic Research Units -two of the most trusted entities on climate research positively connect the dangerous trending rise in planetary surface temperature. This is accelerating rapid, readily observed decrease in Arctic sea ice and permafrost and leading to unprecedented climate events around the world.

One of the climate "deniers" cited in Mr. Folkers' Big Oil marketing piece is a chemist, not a climatologist. There is no doubt Leslie Woodcock is smart and well-educated man. However if you have a heart ailment and 97 heart specialists told you that you needed a procedure in order to live -and a proctologist told you it wasn't necessary -what would you do? Personally, I'd have the recommended heart procedure, wouldn’t you?

Mr. Folkers further misinterpreted physicist John Cook -either willfully or due to ignorance -and in either case irresponsibly. Studies by Naomi Oreskes and later by John Cook clearly conclude that that there is a 97.1% consensus among peer-reviewed climatologists that climate change is real.  (http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024/article).

Climate denial -which has led to public confusion and inaction is an absolute threat to our existence -and that is why the term now has a very negative connotation. Vast amounts of money have been expended by the Koch brothers, Big Oil, Coal and Fracking industry  -as there is significant revenue and profit to be made (without regard to environmental damage or societal risk). The delay in taking profound action provides additional opportunity to derive record quarterly profit –while putting all of our lives, our children’s lives and generations yet to come at risk.