Letter: Best scientists confirm global warming

Sunday, Feb. 18, 2007 | 7:34 a.m.

Lee S. Gliddon Jr., in his Feb. 16 letter, "Put global warming into perspective," has added heat and hot air, but no light and knowledge, to the science behind global warming. Real Climate has an excellent article debunking the notion that there is any global warming occurring on Mars.

The south polar CO2 ice caps are shrinking because it is summer in that hemisphere. The article goes on to explain in patient detail the processes that affect Martian climate, and I am sure Mr. Gliddon would stop using such a ridiculous argument against our effects on Earth's climate, if he would only read the actual science.

It is nice that he acknowledges that humankind has "caused" greenhouse gases, because those are the emissions we can and should control, as they are the ones currently warming our home at an unprecedented rate. Natural process will continue to change climate in mainly slow and gradual ways that life can adapt to but we, collectively, are swamping those effects and hoping for the best. All serious researchers on this topic warn that this hope is at best naive and at worst deadly.

Who are you going to believe? Lee S. Gliddon Jr., or the best and brightest minds working on understanding this crucial problem for all humankind?

Mark Schaffer, Las Vegas