Climate change is emergency & should be treated as such

To The Daily Sun

I have had climate change deniers ask: “What do you know about it? Are YOU a climate scientist?” Well, no I am not. Still, that does not mean I cannot have an informed opinion on the topic. I cannot be versed in every scholarly discipline, so I tend to trust the word of the majority of knowledgeable scholars and scientists in a particular field who are peer-reviewed and do not subscribe to junk science.

Over 97 percent of trained climate scientists agree that climate change is happening and that there is a human element in it. The only difference of opinion among these trained researchers is over how long it is going to take and what we can do about it. It appears that the process is getting progressively worse than was originally thought.

Those who embrace climate change denial rely on “experts” with very questionable credentials in the field and in the scientific community as whole. In addition, their funding can often be traced back to those who do not want the public to believe in global climate change — usually the energy companies.

Let’s look at it another way: my primary care doctor thinks I may have cancer and sends me to an oncologist who confirms the diagnosis. Since I do not like the idea of having cancer, I might ask for a second opinion. But, let’s say I seek a hundred second opinions from highly regarded specialists. Ninety-seven of the hundred doctors say I have cancer and three quacks say I don’t. It would be very stupid of me to believe the quacks and not the other 97 experts!

It is also stupid and dangerous to deny climate change. Climate change is real. It will drastically alter every aspect of the human condition. Denial will not stop the process. It is even more dangerous when our leaders refuse to do anything. The situation at our border is not an “emergency.” Climate change IS an emergency and should be treated as such.

If you care about your children, grandchildren and your other descendants, you would be concerned about this emergency. If you know it his happening and disseminate disinformation to the contrary, you are involved in what one person called a crime against humanity. To support this denial is at least complicity in this crime.

E. Scott Cracraft

Gilford