Roger & Inez Andrews: Other possible sources for climate change need study

To The Daily Sun,

We were pleased to see the letter from Tejasinha Sivalingam, because we believe climate change is a critical issue, and deserves public attention and discussion.

In Tejasinha's letter it is claimed: “The hypothesis of man-made climate change is bad science, if not outright fraud.” We disagree with this conclusion.

What is causing global warming and the resulting climate change? Is it changes in the sun’s output, or variations in the Earth’s orbit around the sun? Nope. How do we know that?

The sun’s output and measured amount of solar energy Earth receives has followed the sun’s natural 11-year cycle with some decrease. It is therefore unlikely that decreased energy caused the observed temperature warming.

The Earth’s orbit around the sun varies in three ways called Milankovitch cycles. Analyses predict these cycles should currently be contributing to cooling, but we are warming. Credit: NASA/JPL.

So, if it is not the sun’s output, or the Earth’s orbit, what is causing global warming and climate change? The cause of a problem needs to be known before it can be solved.

We agree with the majority of the world’s scientists. The evidence is conclusive.

Earth’s recent warming is primarily due to human activities, in particular emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other green house gases into Earth’s atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, and also from a loss of sinks (forests, farm practices, land use and others) that remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Informed folks are needed on both sides of the aisle to solve the climate problem.

Roger & Inez Andrews

Gilford