Lots of overheated rhetoric surrounding issue of climate change
In a June 3 letter to the Review-Journal headlined, “We’re all dead,” Jason G. Brent makes the claim that “by failing to understand what every competent scientist knows and removing the United States from the Paris agreement, Donald Trump has done more harm to humanity than any human being who has ever lived.”
Wow!
As a scientist who has studied the climate and analyzed temperature data, I would like to say that I am not concerned that we have pulled out of the Paris accord. By 2100, almost 100 years from now, if all nations, including the United States, comply with the pact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change climate model predictions show a decrease in temperature of only 0.17 degree Celsius, (0.3 degree Fahrenheit) compared to predictions for no nation complying with the accord. I don’t know about you, but my home thermometer is not able to measure that small of a difference in temperature.
The projections of costs to comply with the Paris accord to 2100 are estimated at $100 trillion, a more than $1 trillion a year impact to the U.S. economy, all for an unmeasurable decrease in temperature. Additionally, if you look at the temperature plot in the 1990 IPCC report, it shows the climate has changed throughout time and that during 900 to 1300 it was warmer than it is today.
We need to stop trying to scare people with rhetoric like Mr. Brent used and instead have a rational discussion as to what, if anything, should be done.
