Re: John Henke's Nov. 4 letter, "No global warming":
It seems to me that Henke doesn't seem to have many of his facts quite right or left out some.
It is very true that there have been many climate changes over the centuries, but it seems that they have greatly accelerated because of man's industrial revolution. He states that during the past 11 years, the coldest year was 11 years ago, so I would think that it was getting warmer during the last 10 years. That is irrelevant because of all these colossal facts we now have:
-- For more than 500 years, explorers left Europe looking for the Northwest Passage, but to no avail. They just found thousands of miles of ice. But just this past year, two cargo ships made it through, and many more will be doing it soon.
-- The glaciers in Glacier National Park are disappearing. The glaciers in South America have melted more in the last 20 years than in the previous 500 years. The same is true of Antarctica.
-- Pacific Island countries are disappearing under water, but they have been there for centuries.
-- What about polar bears and other species that are suffering the same fate?
-- One more fact: This last August was the second hottest August since they began keeping temperature records in 1880. Greenhouse gas has high levels of carbon dioxide, and humans have been clear-cutting the Earth's forests that live on it, and those same forests gave us back oxygen.
It seems now that nearly all the industrial nations of the world realize greenhouse gas is a major problem -- except people like Henke and many corporate CEOs who say, "Just show me the money."
-- John L. Thawley, Santa Paula