Dear Chicago Tribune:
The Polar trek described in “Polar mission: Show warming” is a political expedition, not a scientific one. In fact, it is a mockery of climate science. As the article points out, Polar ice is normally rotten and full of open water in summer, so they shouldn’t blame President Bush when they fall in.
The U.S. has spent about $20 billion on climate change research to date. Globally, the figure is twice that. After this staggering spending we still do not know if the Earth is warming or not, or, if it is, whether humans have anything to do with it. Some parts of the Arctic are warming, others cooling, just like the rest of the world. We are gearing up to deploy a billion-dollar global observing system to get a better handle on this.
The idea that this brave journey is going to contribute more than a few measurements and footprints to climate science is absurd. It is a Greenpeace publicity stunt.
David Wojick, Ph.D.
Star Tannery, VA
540/858-3503
[email protected]
David Wojick, Ph.D. ([email protected], a consultant who writes on climate change, technology, and policy change, is a contributing editor to Environment & Climate News.
