Letter to the Editor
May 29, 2010I've written a few letters to editors of magazines and other publications, and I've replied to letters to the editor from others who have commented on my work. My most recent letter was a sales pitch for Free/Open Source (FOSS) Software. The May 7, 2010, issue of Science had a particularly important letter to the editor. It was a letter signed by 258 members of the US National Academy of Sciences. [1] The letter was a diatribe against "the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particular." Since the NAS has not taken a formal position on this matter, these scientists were not speaking ex cathedra, but as private citizens.
The letter further affirms the following scientific conclusions about climate change [1]:
- The planet is warming due to increased concentrations of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere. A snowy winter in Washington does not alter this fact.
- Most of the increase in the concentration of these gases over the last century is due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.
- Natural causes always play a role in changing Earth's climate, but are now being overwhelmed by human-induced changes.
- Warming the planet will cause many other climatic patterns to change at speeds unprecedented in modern times, including increasing rates of sea-level rise and alterations in the hydrologic cycle. Rising concentrations of carbon dioxide are making the oceans more acidic.
- The combination of these complex climate changes threatens coastal communities and cities, our food and water supplies, marine and freshwater ecosystems, forests, high mountain environments, and far more.