Despite the incredible challenges posed by global warming, which has the potential to destroy all life on Earth, some still seek to discredit, often on a purely partisan and ad hominem basis, the robust science that testifies to the reality of climate change.
Sandy resident Mark Whitney, for example, claims global warming science is merely an "unstable foundation underpinning the Gore-heads," and insinuates that scientists who are warning the public about the dangers of global warming are doing so merely to benefit from "the funding gravy train that has supported their flights of fancy" ("Alarmists losing ground," Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 21).
Contrary to Whitney's claims, scientists overwhelmingly agree that global warming is occurring - and at a rapidly accelerating pace. Since its formation in 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the largest worldwide scientific collaboration in history, has "assessed and scrutinized the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced global warming."
The IPCC concluded that the Earth's climate is warming and that all signs point primarily to the burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas.
The National Academy of Sciences, the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science also agree that global warming pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, are accumulating in the earth's atmosphere as a result of human activities. They also agree that this accumulation has resulted in a dangerous increase in surface air temperatures.
Even President Bush joined the other heads of state at the 2005 G8 Summit in recognizing the reality of global warming and the role of fossil fuel emissions in rapid global temperature increases.
Unfortunately, it has become easier than ever to disseminate misleading and inaccurate information about global warming. Those skeptical about the reality of global warming frequently cite a petition circulated in 1998 by The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. Jim Elwell, for example, cited this petition when he criticized The Tribune for asserting that global warming is occurring ("Tribune ignores scientists," Aug. 9).
The petition offered on OISM's Web site provides a long list of signatures by "scientific experts" who contend global warming is nothing more than a myth. However, OISM provides no means to authenticate the names or verify their academic credentials. The site seems to permit anyone with a mouse and a keyboard the chance to weigh in, whether they have any relevant expertise or not.
Furthermore, the National Academies of Science has determined the scientific study attached to the petition is a sham, created by a biochemist with no published research in the field of climatology. OISM has repeatedly declined to reveal the funding sources for the petition campaign, merely acknowledging that "industry" groups have been the main sources of funding.
This sort of behind-the-scenes manipulation, by industry cronies and lobbyists who stand to gain financially from disputing global warming, undermines scientific work and obstructs the pursuit of solutions to the most urgent challenge facing our world.
Fringe "experts" and fraudulent advocacy campaigns are not the only beneficiaries of scientific chicanery. Many leaders in government have been hoodwinked into a head-in-the-sand policy of ignorance, sometimes even relying on works of fiction, rather than science, to justify their dangerous apathy.
Global warming is real and poses enormous risks to humanity and all life on Earth. Our obligations to future generations compel us to stop quibbling about whether global warming is occurring and start acting. The future will be determined by what each of us does now, at all levels of government, in business and in our individual lives.
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* ROCKY ANDERSON is mayor of Salt Lake City.
