Letter to the Editor: Greenland Ice Gain Since World War II

Published April 1, 2007

As a retired meteorologist, I feel the accusation that we humans are the cause of global warming is one of the biggest hoaxes ever foisted on a gullible public by the media. There have always been cycles of warming and cooling, as evidenced by the transition from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age some centuries later.

As for the Greenland ice cap melting, I offer the following: When flying back to the states during World War II the plane I was on was forced by strong headwinds to land at an auxiliary air base on the Greenland ice cap. There I learned that a group of planes had been forced by icing to land some distance away. They were never able to take off again. A few years ago they were relocated, and after evacuation, one P-38 was dismantled and brought to the surface.

The point I want to make is that these planes were almost 300 feet below the surface when they were recovered. Snow and ice had accumulated that much in the intervening 50-plus years. While the Greenland ice cap may be melting around the edges, no one should worry that the ice cap of Greenland is in any danger of melting away. Making drastic changes to our economy based on pseudo-science conclusions would be a terrible mistake, in my opinion.

Joseph L. Hudson
Arlington, Virginia