This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
How Kafkaesque that climate change denier Rep. Chris Stewart chairs the House Subcommittee on the Environment, with "oversight over scientific issues regarding environmental policy." ("Be cautious on climate change," Opinion, April 14).
Stewart asserts that global warming and resulting changes in the climate are occurring naturally. However, 97-98 percent of climate scientists most actively publishing in the field agree that human activities (burning of coal, oil, and gas) are causing increasingly catastrophic changes in the climate.
Those scientists who disagree (the 2-3 percent upon whom Stewart apparently relies) have significantly less climate expertise and scientific prominence. Those conclusions about scientific consensus are not based simply on an online survey, as claimed by Stewart, but are set forth in a rigorous assessment reported in the proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Stewart also should know that many of Utah's most prominent scientists agree with the "scientific consensus" that "human-generated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations are responsible for most of the global warming observed during the past 50 years."
We are in dire need of honest, competent leadership, with a decent regard for science, instead of more misinformation and political prostitution in service to the fossil-fuel industry.
Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson
Salt Lake City