Mr. Boyd asks what will happen if we eliminate CO2 (“
We all learn about the carbon cycle and photosynthesis in grade school, so its role is not mysterious. It should not come as a surprise that if CO2 is responsible for plant growth and atmospheric oxygen, and with water vapor is the reason the Earth is not a frozen, lifeless planet, a 50% increase might cause difficulties.
The research Mr. Boyd asks for has been done (including satellite measurements), and it shows the planet has warmed by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1880s and, if nothing is done, will be 6-10 degrees above historic values by 2100, causing agricultural failure and global catastrophe.
Climate change skeptics, who no longer deny that the planet is warming, argue that the climate has always varied and that this is just another of those fluctuations. Unfortunately, there are no other possible causes of the current warming other than changes in the sun, which have been rigorously ruled out.
It is time to stop debating the established facts of global warming and move on to preventing the worst effects of climate change by moving rapidly to reduce CO2 emissions.
No, climate change is not just a “buzz word,” but the challenge of this generation and the next. If we get it wrong, the world will be a different place.
Dan Purrington
Durango
