The effects of “climate change” are many and varied

Letter to Editor by Larry Harris, Morgantown Dominion Post, June 2, 2019

The news has been full of stories of disastrous weather events of late: Heavy rainfall followed by floods in the Midwest; increased numbers of tornados, high temperatures, melting ice packs and so on.

A Washington Post article pointed out that it was 84 degrees in the Arctic last week. Eighteen of the hottest years on record have occurred since 2000. These are all indications that our climate is changing.

What is causing the extremes of temperature? Climate scientists point to increased greenhouse gases such as CO2, which reached 415 ppm (parts per million) this week — the highest in human history. In fact, CO2 levels are rising in an exponential manner due to our continued burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas.

Most countries in the world recognize the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels, but our country, the greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, is denying there is a problem.

This week it was announced that the EPA was told to change the way it reports climate information. No more reports will be allowed that show how bad things will be after 2040 if we do not limit our use of fossil fuels.

Our current administration in Washington is interfering with the reporting of science, thereby allowing politics and money interests to trump the scientific method. It has become difficult to know what is true in our society, due to the increased occurrence of fake news.

But real science is based on truth, on studies that correlate physical data to events. If our president can step into the scientific world and tell scientists what they can and can’t report, then we have slipped to a dangerous place for the future. This has to change.

We are fortunate to be able to vote for better leadership, and 2020 is the time to do so.

>>> Larry Harris, Retired Professor of Biochemistry at WVU, has served on the Environmental Protection Advisory Council for the WV-DEP