On the other hand, who will you believe — Cal Thomas or Al Gore?

On the other hand,
who will you believe —
Cal Thomas or Al Gore?

EDITOR:

In response to the Jan. 7 letter “Who will you believe — Cal or your lying eyes?” the author claims that there are “vast amounts of evidence that global warming is very much upon us.” However, he does not offer one fact to back up his claim. Rather he bases his beliefs on the ice skating trends of the 1970s. I for one am not willing to sum up 4.5 billion years of the Earths weather patterns based on the thickness of the ice in Sandusky, Ohio, in 1963. 

In criticizing Cal Thomas’s article “Global warming cultists do us a disservice,” the letter writer compares anyone who questions global warming theory to Iranian Dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his denial of the Holocaust. We are able however to see pictures of dead and dying Holocaust victims, we can hear the survivors bear witness to the atrocities, and we can unearth the remains of the slaughtered to prove that Mr. Ahmadinejad is an ignorant fool. Making such a comparison to global warming critics may permit us to make similar assumptions of the letter writer.

If one reads Cal Thomas’s article, or listens to many of the global warming naysayers, you would find that most of us don’t question weather the Earth’s climate has warmed slightly in recent history, rather we questions the belief that this warming has been caused by human behavior, and more importantly if changing that behavior can reverse the trend.  

Although it his hard to argue with someone of the stature of Al Gore, after all he did invent the Internet. Common sense tells me that perhaps there is more going on than meets the eye. Many of us rascally Republicans know all too well how our progressive friends like Mr. Gore love to find new and exciting ways to get their hands on our money. One might make the argument that global warming is a well planned conspiracy to spread panic about the impending doom of the Earth and this disaster can only be averted by changing the behavior of those individuals who are causing it, and that most of those people are right here in the United States, and the best way to curb unwanted behavior is to you guessed it, tax that behavior.

Despite the letter writer’s obvious disdain for Republicans, I want to assure him that I too want to breathe fresh air and drink clean water. I love green trees and blue oceans. I love my children and want them and generations to come to enjoy the beauty of this wonderful planet. I also, however, love our way of life. I love driving my SUV, sometimes even alone. I love air conditioning, which I believe is the greatest invention of the 20th century and I love this country.

So I think it is only common sense that before we drink the global warming Kool-Aid, we conduct sound debate, gather solid data and facts to ensure that we do not unnecessarily give up all of the advances this country has made over the last 100 years, which has helped make this (despite what Mr. Gore says to the United Nations) the greatest country on Earth.

ROBERT N. REZEK

Youngstown