Babbitt on Global Warming
Re “Where Have All the Glaciers Gone?” Commentary, Oct 24: Apparently, Chicken Little is a member of the president’s Cabinet. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt tells us we must take drastic action to stop the glaciers from melting. However, the Earth has experienced even greater variations in temperature not only before the Industrial Age, but even before humans existed. Ice ages have come and gone, and glaciers have advanced and receded, for a very long time as part of Earth’s natural processes. To blame the small temperature changes over the last 100 years on man’s carbon dioxide emissions is, well, nutty.
The restrictions that Babbitt and company wish to impose at Kyoto will undoubtedly cost billions of dollars, but there is no sound scientific evidence that the expense will produce a significant change in global temperatures. This latest scheme to hamper man’s ingenuity and freedom is another waste of money that will only increase the power of bureaucrats.
CHRISTOPHER M. SCHNAUBELT
Santa Maria
* How beautiful to hear Babbitt call us to action. It’s 11:59 and counting! Business needs to stop arguing over the “economics” of cleaning the air. The AQMD needs to stop worrying about business lobbying it about lost jobs. Forget about jobs, profits and employment and focus on the environment. The jobs, profits and employment will find a way. The priority is the planet, for without the planet there are no jobs, profits and employment. A call to action indeed, a call for long-range thinking. Go Bruce!
RICHARD WEGMAN
Pacific Palisades
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