Letter: Earth is as susceptible to pollutants as we are

Sunday, Feb. 25, 2007 | 7:23 a.m.

I've been reading the recent letters about global warming, and whereas I am nowhere near an expert on the subject, there is one aspect of it which I'm not seeing addressed extensively. Global warming is not merely about the planet getting warmer. The bigger concern lies with the vast complex of interrelated processes that will arise with it.

In particular, beyond more fierce storms that will take place, there is the very real danger that as the ice caps melt, the salt water oceans in turn will lose their salinity. That, in turn, can significantly alter ocean convection, which is the process by which weather is controlled on this planet.

In short, if the convection cycle stops, the Earth becomes stagnant, it stops raining, and we all die. And whether this is because of natural conditions, human intervention, or both, the fact remains that the ice caps are melting faster than scientists can explain, and the only thing within our power to control is human intervention. Denying the influence of human intervention is absurd.

If a person is a smoker and gets cancer, everyone will say that this person polluted his or her body and should have seen it coming. We constantly tell smokers to quit or bad things will happen. Yet if we dump the amount of garbage into the atmosphere that we've been dumping, no effect should result? Since when did the planet become exempt from the consequences of our collective actions?

Timothy James, Las Vegas