Re: “M.D. Harmon: Warming enthusiasts need to face some inconvenient truths” (June 13):

More “fact” checking is required:

Professor Roger Pielke Jr. is not a climate scientist or atmospheric physicist. Is his knowledge of mathematics and political science used to creatively spin numbers to favor a chosen point of view? His statistics on the frequency and strength of category 3 and greater hurricanes in the North Atlantic Basin are selective. If you do the math on the 100-year record as stated, it is nonsensical.

Stating that “global warming stopped around 1998” because the mean temperature’s rate of increase has slowed is grossly misleading. The last decade had the highest average temperatures ever recorded, and they are rising.

It is empirically measured that warmer oceans are putting more water into storm clouds, resulting in more extreme rainfall, more flooding and, coupled with higher sea levels, more opportunity for coastal erosion. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is dissolving into the oceans as carbonic acid, and this makes an unhealthy environment for shellfish and coral.

Mr. Harmon’s bullet point section on tornadoes contains no facts, just speculation.

Finally, the Thwaites Glacier is not the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is collapsing in an alarming and irreversible way. The quote mentioned in the column comes from a University of Texas news release, not the journal article that Mr. Harmon mentions. The researchers who wrote the article do not offer a factual conclusion.

Circulatory explanations and relative salinity affect sea ice, and the disappearance of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is well documented. Comparing global weather satellite observations to the anecdotal observations of “Captain Cook and others” is laughable.

Robert Libby

Chebeague Island