Phil Drietz letter: Cal Thomas is short-sighted on climate change – West Central Tribune
The Nov. 4, 2023, ‘Cal Thomas is short-sighted on climate change’ letter stated: “…evidence of human-caused global warming has been building steadily.”
Actually, water vapor is the greatest greenhouse gas, comprising 1% to 3% of gasses in the atmosphere. Man-made carbon dioxide, known as CO2, is only 0.0016%, and man-made methane is only about 0.00012% of the atmosphere.
Over the last 15 years, I have yet to see a sensible explanation on how these micro-portions of methane and CO2 can jerk our weather systems around when the oceans contain 50 times more CO2 than the atmosphere total and over 1,200 times more CO2 than man-made CO2.
Phasing out coal-fired power plants and requiring low-sulfur fuel to be burned in ocean-going ships is actually contributing to global warming.
This was verified recently in the July 22, 2022 & Aug 8, 2023 issues of AAAS ‘Science’ headlines; “Cleaner air is adding to global warming.” Satellite data is telling us that the reduction of sulfate and nitrate particles since 2000 is not reflecting as much sunlight back into space, thereby contributing to global warming.
Even “climate expert” James Hansen says we may need to use geo-engineering to start lofting sulfates back into the atmosphere to cool things down by increasing solar reflection. It seems this is simply copying Ma Nature when she blasts sulfates into the atmosphere to cool things down.
Witness the 1816 “year without summer” that followed the Mount Tambora eruption in 1815.
How ironic that the anti-fossil fuel folks end up fueling global warming.