Letter: Finding ways to limit greenhouse gases is crucial

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 | 9:10 a.m.

In her Feb. 4 letter, Marilyn Hilborn used the recent tsunami as a metaphor for the demise of our economy if we try to wean the industrialized world off fossil fuels. A more apt metaphor is the "tsunami" of ocean, climate and environmental impacts that will come if we continue global deforestation and the rampant burning of fossil fuels.

The fact of global warming is a product of the scientific method. It's a system of checks and balances that actually works. Theories that don't stand the test of time are tossed. Scientists have determined that the Earth is now more than 4.5 billion years old and that humanity has been clomping about for only a few million of those years. Our population has exploded from under one billion some 200 years ago to approaching seven billion today. Yikes! We're bursting at the seams and everyone wants to live like Americans. Our lifestyle produces greenhouse gases that trap heat in our atmosphere and, among other things, melt ice caps and cause sea levels to rise. Temperature increases and climatic impacts, here on our only planet, will be global.

Some of us think we ought to come up with preventive solutions. One obvious solution is to produce less of the greenhouse gases that trap the heat. In that case we'd need alternative sources of energy. Whatever it takes, future generations will be forced to deal with these issues. Those generations will include our great, great grandchildren and beyond. Shall we take them into account, or not?

STEVE WESSELLS