30 Fairmont Park Lane S
Lethbridge, AB
T1K 7H7
Phone: (403) 328-1804
Monday, October 10, 2005
The Editor
The Lethbridge Herald
P.O. Box 670
Lethbridge
AB, T1J 3Z7
Dear Editor,
David Suzuki’s recent “science” story on global warming seems intended to be scary (“Science Matters”, October 2, 2005, A6).
He indicates that “it has been difficult to find out how plants will actually respond to prolonged increased temperatures. Experiments have been conducted on small plots using heat lamps….”. Dr. Suzuki then goes on to praise the skills of scientists who dramatically link the effects of Europe’s drought of 2003 to climate change.
People have been moving plants from one climate zone to another for millennia. Researchers have been studying growing plants under widely varied and controlled climate conditions for hundreds of years. It seems that, in his zeal to promote the concept that greenhouse gases from fossil fuels induce climate change, Dr. Suzuki has even forgotten the existence of real greenhouses.
Herald readers may remember climate change dramatists made much of the factoid that 1998 was, globally, the warmest year on the measured record. We have not heard much about that lately. Why? Well, 1998 is still the warmest year on record. This observation, too, is probably not very relevant to real climate science. It does help put global warming scare stories in perspective.
Yours truly,
Duane Pendergast