Earl O. Knutson letter: Cal Thomas is short-sighted on climate change - West Central Tribune
Earl O. Knutson letter: Cal Thomas is short-sighted on climate change - West Central Tribune | News, weather, sports from Willmar Minnesota
Earl O. Knutson letter: Cal Thomas is short-sighted on climate change
The letter writer takes issue with many other assertions in Thomas’ commentary.
In his commentary, entitled More climate fiction in the year 2023, published Sept. 6 in the West Central Tribune, Cal Thomas maintained that climate change is not culpable in the fires, floods, droughts, and bad weather that have occurred in the past few years.
Our group, the Willmar Area Climate Action Group, has discussed the Thomas column. This is our response.
In the case of the recent forest fires in Canada, Thomas says the cause is poor forest management. But it is hard to imagine that Canadians have gradually gone slack on forest management, whereas it is a fact that heat waves have been more common. We hold that it is the climate that has changed, not the forest management.
We take issue with many other assertions in Thomas’ commentary. He cites as a failure of science the 1970s concern of impending human-caused global cooling. That possibility was put forth in the infancy of climate science and laid to rest in short order as data accumulated.
For the next 40 years, evidence of human-caused global warming has been building steadily.
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Thomas expresses distrust of professional scientists whose work is supported by public funds but places faith in a group named Climate Intelligence. This group, which was formed in 2019 and has built its numbers by internet, does not seem reliable to us.
According to Wikipedia, Thomas identifies as an Evangelical Christian and his climate views are probably a guidepost for many. For more trustworthy climate views we recommend the book “ Following Jesus in a Warming World” by Kyle Meyaard-Schaap, vice president of the Evangelical Environmental Network. This book is available from www.christianbook.com and elsewhere.
Earl O. Knutson
Willmar
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.