Web Letters: The Daffodil Delusion: Sensationalizing Global Warming

Pollution is a harmful thing to humans and other creatures. Pollution is caused by global warming.This is the stuff that causes climate change. When climate change starts the icebergs melt and the sea level rises. I'm tired of seing garbage like plastic bags, plastic bottles, glass bottles, tin cans, paper and cigarette packs lying on the floor. Our environment is choking on garbage. Fishes mistake trash for food and so do other animals. Please help keep our environment clean and do fight to stop global warming.

Joanna Mena Jasmine

San Diego, CA

Sensationalization takes a variety of forms, including ignoring the fact that the melting of the Martian CO2 icecaps means that it is primarily solar, not human action.

John D. Froelich

Upper Darby, Pennsylvania

The phenomena of global warming, imagined or otherwise, is not the real problem, I believe. The real problem is overpopulation as it relates to the use and abuse of our worlds dwindling resources. Articles such as this are just fluff. Greenhouse gasses, interurban growth problems, urban sprawl, deforestation, the pollution of our oceans and the loss of fish species are all related to the number of people on this planet. Global warming is just one of the results of our fascination with unfettered procreation.

Of course this is the untouchable subject, the one that all topics will dance around until the bitter end. I offer that there is a system of ailments affecting our planet, and that the only way to understand them all is to relate them to the basic concept of "growth" and the management of this fundamental issue. I'm not against family or technology, but the consequences of unchecked expansion create a conundrum that can be more easily understood if we stop obfuscating around this "global warming" issue and get right to the point: overpopulation.

Dennis Hastings

Olympia, Washington

Please take a closer look at the studies you reference. Fast warming is not only possible, it has occurred in the past, including a nearly ten-degree Fahrenheit increase during the Middle Ages. This increase took place in less than ten years. El Niño is affected by warming and many scientists believe we could experience a permanent El Niño as oceans warm. It is important to consider the so-called feedback loop effects when makng projections of how fast we are warming--the right combination of seemingly unrelated effects can accelerate change.

Martin Edic

Rochester, NY