Just the (global-warming) facts

This is in response to Douglas Stronblotz’s letter to the editor, “Wipe Up That Footprint” [Jan. 23].

Mr. Stonblotz is concerned with the politicizing of global warming. He fears that it’s a liberal issue designed to guilt the American consumer into riding bicycles and eating vegetables. In defense of the free market and consumer demand for larger, safer vehicles, he writes: “For science’s sake, stop acting as if we know all the facts.”

That’s prudent advice. It simply doesn’t make sense for Americans to halt their consumer habits based on a liberal agenda supported by shifty scientific evidence. Who among us would fall for such foolishness? We are, after all, Americans. We’re a smart people, individualists. Inherent in us is a husky disdain for big government, regulation and supplication before anything save the good Lord himself.

This is why I encourage Mr. Stronblotz—and the community at large—to take advantage of Diana Wortham’s free lecture series on global warming. The American Meteorological Society and the Colburn Earth Science Museum have pulled out all the polarizing stops in presenting “Climate Change in 2008: Past, Present and Future.” Attendees are promised a just-the-facts approach to the issue of global warming.

There’s no need to listen to lackey liberal pundits when we can hear it straight from the horse’s mouth: the scientists who are leading the research on global warming.

As Americans, we have a right to empower ourselves through free speech and solid research. Exercise the First Amendment! Do what’s right for America: Listen to the facts laid out by the best and brightest of our scientific community, and then decide for yourself if our world is getting warmer.

— Michael J. Sule
Asheville