Weather forecast

Re “Hot and dry -- for decades,” Opinion, July 13

After all the rhetoric about man-made global warming, it’s enlightening to see Glen M. MacDonald’s take on the drought situation in California. Could it be that global warming (and cooling for that matter) is part of a natural cyclic phenomenon? If you research the climate records over the last 1,000 years, one can reasonably see that the warming of the planet comes and goes over time and sometimes lasts a long time. In the 1970s, the fear about global cooling was seen as even more of a threat.

Before we all try to upend the economy to solve this so-called man-made problem, perhaps we should look at more practical ways to help ourselves right now. We should be looking to build desalinization plants in California as well as looking for greener solutions to electricity in the form of nuclear energy.

TERRY JOHNSTON

Newport Beach