Climate change alarmists are on the wrong side of history

To The Daily Sun,

While reading Dick Devens' "Google 'sea level rising' ..." opinion letter in the July 24 edition of The Sun, I found myself chuckling. How lucky Mr. Devens is to live here in central New Hampshire surrounded by evidence of climate change that's far more substantial than pine cones and needles, broken branches, and the spread of tree disease.

It's important to realize that our climate is changing all the time and man has little to do with it. How can I say this with authority? The evidence is all around us here in the state of New Hampshire, New England as well as the entire Midwestern USA.

Realize that just about 13,000 years ago a giant continental glacier covered all of New England with an ice sheet that was 3,000-4,000 feet thick. This sheet of ice spread from the North Pole all the way down to New York City. The New York Times, a publication that leans left more than the Tower of Pisa, published a fantastic special feature about how the giant glacier shaped Central Park and the boroughs of Gotham City. Google that Mr. Devens.

Cape Cod was buried under this thick ice. A giant glacial erratic boulder, the Doane Rock, screams at us about the existence of the ice sheet.

The Finger Lakes of in New York state were carved by the ice sheet. I used to play golf in Cincinnati, OH on the terminal moraine left at the toe of this mighty glacier. The ice stretched across Indiana, Illinois, and up into the upper Midwest.

The drastically different weather pattern that created the ice sheet also created the water that filled the massive Lake Bonneville in Utah. I ask Mr. Devens to Google this fact.

Here in NH the glacial evidence of this massive ice sheet is striking. I can take you to exposed granite on a range road in Sanbornton that has glacial striation scratch marks on it. The grooves were created by gravel and rocks under the crushing weight of the thick ice. As the glacier moved from the northwest to the southeast, the glacier dragged the rocks and sand across the granite.

Mr. Devens, since you trust Google so much, I ask for you to open up Google Maps and pull up the state of New Hampshire. In the upper left of the screen, switch to Terrain view. This shows you the topographic map of the state.

You'll note the massive continental glacier left its calling card on many of our mountains and hills. You'll discover that the southeast face of almost all the hills and mountains is much steeper than the northwest face that has a more gentle slope.

The huge ice sheet advanced from the northwest, for the most part, across NH. As it crested the mountains beneath it, the ice plucked off rocks from the southeast face creating the steeper cliffs and hillsides. Isn't that amazing?

A hundred feet, or more, above the Pemigewasset and Merrimac Rivers there are many cubic miles of sand, gravel, and rounded rock deposits left by the massive raging rivers created by the melting ice sheet. You can see some of this sand as you travel south along I-93 just past the toll booth below Concord. Look to your right after passing through the toll booth. See that massive pile of sand? Ask yourself how in the world did it get there?

The Athabasca Glacier in Canada happens to be the poster child for the man-made climate change folks like Mr. Devens. It's a tiny thin glacier. Go Google that too.

I've walked across this tiny sheet of ice and quenched my thirst with its pure meltwater. When you visit it, you can see signs put up as to where the toe of the glacier was in 1970, 1945, 1910, etc. The current toe of the glacier today is but a mile from where it was back nearly 100 years ago.

When you get out a piece of paper and do some simple math, you discover that the last giant continental glacier that covered so much of the USA retreated up to the North Pole at a blistering pace of about 1/3 a mile per year on average. In 100 years, this enormous glacier would have retreated about 30 miles.

Keep in mind that the continental glacier was far thicker and much more widespread than the Athabasca glacier.

If you can brush your ideology out of the way for a moment, you have to ask yourself: "How can that much ice melt that fast with no carbon dioxide created by pesky buses, trucks, cars, power plants, etc.?" Back 13,000 years ago maybe all the wooly mammoths were eating too much flatulence food. That's a joke, Mr. Devens.

Oh, and I forgot to add that New Hampshire wasn't blanketed by ice just one time in the past 2,000,000 years. It happened four times!

As you munch on your granola, ponder that. Four different periods of continental glaciation spread out over 2,000,000 years. How many campfires in caves would you need to make enough CO2 to melt that much ice? How much climate change does it take to create that much ice?

While you contemplate all that, try to think back to the raging science arguments we know about in history. Remember all those great scientists that thought the Earth was the center of the solar system? What about the sage people who swore the Earth was flat? How about all those distinguished health professionals that knew for a fact blood-letting was the way to cure disease?

They all were on the wrong side of history in those debates. Mr. Devens, I hate to tell you this, but you and all your other friends that pound your chests swearing that man is causing climate change need to get on the right side of history.

We welcome you with open arms, my friend. Just be sure to check your ideology at the door.

Tim Carter

Meredith