Letter: Global warming reports misread

Thursday, July 19, 2001 | 9:02 a.m.

The National Academy of Sciences issued a report in early June suggesting that man is the cause of global warming. As expected, it led to numerous claims by environmentalists that the problem must be addressed by imposing a variety of international controls on industrial and human behavior.

However, the report itself states that "there is considerable uncertainty" about the causes of fluctuations in the Earth's temperature. And Dr. S. Fred Singer of the Environmental Policy Project immediately pointed out that another committee of the same national academy reported in January 2000 that the global atmosphere showed little if any warming since 1979.

The year 1979 is significant because it marked the start of using weather satellites to record the temperature of the Earth over the oceans and in uninhabited regions. Most of the previous temperature data had been gathered at land-based stations near populated areas.

Yet, based on the June 2001 NAS report, headlines throughout the nation informed the public that global warming is a fact. It is not, as a close reading of NAS reports indicates.

CHARLES A. DELZOTTI