We’ve seen an onslaught of irate letters to the editor from the environmental choir since President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. “He is a climate change denier!” they say.

Perhaps we should look instead at the climate change defiers. For the 4 billion-plus years of the Earth’s existence, the climate has changed, and changed and changed again. It started off totally toxic to humans, went through stages of heat, which brought outsized flora and the dinosaurs and also went through several ice ages. Through the eons, it has warmed and cooled without any help or hindrance from humankind. No coal-fired plants, sport utility vehicles or herds of flatulent cattle were on hand 12,000 years ago when Earth’s climate warmed and ended the Ice Age.

The tilt of the Earth, Earth’s wobble, solar activity and cosmic rays are the major factors for climate change. There is also very little correlation between Earth’s climate and carbon dioxide levels. Glacial ice core samples reveal periods of carbon dioxide levels 10 times higher that today. Thus, carbon dioxide is not likely to be the principal climate change driver.

All of the above is irrelevant to the climate defiers. The faithful know that they can take on the climate and stop it in its tracks. They like this climate, and Earth had better not try to change it.

Their hubris is remarkable. We could have more faith in their attempts to control the Earth’s climate if they’d start with a less ambitious assignment. Why not change the course of the next tornado to avoid a trailer park, or stop the next hurricane as it starts forming? If the climate defiers would pull off one of these feats, they might prove their power.

Until then, please dial back the hysteria. The Paris climate accord would affect our economy, but not the climate.

Gerald Caruso

Falmouth


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