Letter to the editor of the Toronto Star

Date: April 17, 2004

Subject: Global warming a load of hot air

Re: Keep Kyoto pledge, Editorial, April 6.

The last sentence of your editorial was extraordinarily prescient: ``Otherwise all the talk about putting an end to global warming will have been nothing but hot air." Yes, indeed, that is all it has ever been. We could all die tomorrow, or return to the Stone Age and global warming would continue unabated. It is a natural phenomenon to which the human contribution is negligible.

This was one of the main reasons it was not ratified in the United States and also one of the principle objections Russia has to the treaty. They, and thousands of scientists worldwide, know very well that implementing billion-dollar plans intended to put an end to global warming are absurd.

Had our politicians consulted with the country's scientific community, including leading non-governmental climate experts, they would have seen the folly in charging ahead with this massive misallocation of taxpayer funds. Instead, Kyoto became merely a political football, rushed through to meet an arbitrary end-of-2002 deadline and largely devoid of any serious science discussions at all.

Instead of endless debate about the cost of implementation or who has jurisdiction, it is about time we started calling a spade a spade: Kyoto won't work. Let's focus our attention and tax dollars on real issues.

Dr. Fred Michel 
Associate Professor 
Institute of Environmental Science and Department of Earth Sciences (arctic regions specialist) 
Carleton University, Ottawa


 

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