Regarding the editorial "Climate change twists", you refer to the assumption by climate change alarmists that there is a positive feedback magnifying the minuscule direct effect of additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (OGJ, Nov. 2, 2009, p. 18). However, data trump assumptions and the data show a negative feedback, not the assumed positive feedback (see "Climate Feedback" by Lindzen and Choi, Geophysical Research Letters 36, L161705, Aug. 26, 2009).
Other information plus common sense tells us that nature, not human activity, controls climate. There has been an increase in temperature as the earth recovers from the Little Ice Age. The warmest year during this period was 1934, well before our use of fossil fuels took off, about 1950. Superimposed on the long-term warming period there have been shorter-term warming and cooling periods which are correlated with the activity of the sun.
Before the Little Ice Age, there was a medieval warm period, warmer than today. It was a good time for human beings, without catastrophic climate effects.
The argument that carbon dioxide intensified Katrina doesn't hold water. While carbon dioxide concentration continues to increase, there have been no serious hurricanes reaching the US this season. A simplistic look at this fact could lead to an argument that carbon dioxide protects us from hurricanes.
William E. Morris
Wilmington, Del.
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