During his Alaska trip, Obama warned that global warming was causing vast amounts (57 gigatons per year) of melting ice in Alaska and the Arctic, and that warming "will condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair it." At the same time, he is calling for more Arctic icebreakers to attack the rapidly melting ice. Why do we need icebreakers when nature is
doing away with the ice?
The president condemned "cynics and critics and the deniers" who are expressing doubts about the threat from global warming. But those critics can point to all the data showing no global surface warming in 20 years despite substantial increases in atmosphere carbon dioxide. "The heat is going to the oceans," say alarmists. But data from the ARGO system and RSS satellites shows "a negligible trend in ocean temperature" in the last 20 years. The ARGO system has 3,500 temperature measuring instruments in the world's oceans which transmit readings to stations in Monterey, Calif., and Brest, France.
The president wants to spend billions more on intermittent energy sources like wind and solar to replace coal burning. There are good reasons to reduce coal's emissions of mercury, sulfur, arsenic and soot. Round-the-clock and cleaner energy sources like natural gas and carbon-free nuclear are better alternatives.
Rolf Westgard
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St. Paul
