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Climate change debate challenge

One can admire Steve Thompson’s enthusiasm (Inter Lake letter to the editor, Sept. 24) in his futile effort to “address” climate change. Thompson thinks human emissions drive climate change. He thinks an outdated 150-year-old scientific idea is valid.

He thinks talking about rising temperatures, shrinking glaciers, burning forests, damaging hurricanes, etc., proves humans cause climate change. But talking about effects does not prove their cause.

There are only two relevant scientific questions about climate change: (1) How much do human emissions increase atmospheric CO2? and (2) How much does atmospheric CO2 increase global temperature? Let’s talk about (1).

Fact: the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) agrees annual human CO2 emissions are less than 5 percent of nature’s CO2 emissions. Now, imagine you do the following:

Add 5 parts of cream to 95 parts of coffee to a cup with a hole in the bottom. So, you continuously pour this proportion of cream and coffee into your cup to keep it filled.

Question: What is the percent of cream in your coffee? Answer: You know it’s 5 percent.

But the IPCC claims human emissions, although less than 5 percent of nature’s, caused 100 percent of the CO2 increase since 1750. That false, unproven claim is the foundation of Thompson’s and the IPCC’s climate charade.

Therefore, I challenge Thompson to prove that human emissions have caused all the CO2 increase since 1750, in a 30-minute public debate against me at his community forums on Nov. 8 and 16. If Thompson refuses, he will prove he is a climate phony.

I similarly challenge FVCC to include my 20-minute rebuttal to “Montana’s top climate scientists” in its Montana Climate Assessment on Oct. 16.

If FVCC refuses, it will prove it is a political organization rather than an educational institution. —Edwin Berry, Bigfork

Fire Sen. Daines

Sen. Steve Daines held a so-called “town hall” tele-conference recently in which he labeled Montanans “angry” about the fires and smoke we’ve endured.

He failed to offer productive solutions, instead choosing to enflame hatred toward “extreme environmental groups” by laying the blame on them. His cowardly practice of not facing his constituents, while unfairly vilifying reasonably concerned citizens, is not worthy of our great state.

It’s much easier to create scapegoats, spread misinformation and fuel hatred, than to provide true leadership toward solving complex problems. Experts in forest ecology (hardly extreme environmentalists) inform us that climate and weather drive fires. If you honestly want to assign blame for extreme fire seasons, blame extreme weather and its legitimate causes.

Exploiting people who are understandably distressed is a failure of leadership. It indicates woeful ignorance at best. Even the pope pronounced that denying climate change is stupid. Or, perhaps Daines is merely a malevolent manipulator seeking to win the next election by trumping up fear, ignorance and hatred.

Yes, I’m angry. We’re being played for fools by science-denying, greedy, ethically bankrupt politicians like Daines, Gianforte and Zinke. Their ilk must be fired or we deserve to burn in the hell they’re creating. —Wanda LaCroix, Arlee