Seeking Evidence

It is true that the majority of climate scientists would not now vote for the proposition that “anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide does not cause global warming.” It is also true that at the time of Copernicus no one would have agreed with him that “Earth is not the center of the universe.” He would probably have been burned at the stake for that statement had he not made it on his deathbed.

I cite Copernicus because scientific truth is never decided by majority vote as Rudy Baum implies. He brazenly exposes his ignorance of this truth when he says in his editorial that only a tiny minority of scientists maintain that anthropogenic carbon dioxide does not cause global warming and thus is not worthy of equal coverage in your magazine (C&EN, Aug. 4, page 3).

The truth is that the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere has gone up steadily since the time in about 1958 when the continuous record of carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere was first begun. At the outset of these measurements, the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere was about 310 ppm; it has now risen to about 400 ppm.

It is also true that, according to the majority’s own measurements, the temperature of the globe has remained constant for the past 17 years, within the error of the measurement.

Please tell me where I err in thinking that that is ample evidence that anthropogenic atmospheric carbon dioxide does not cause global warming and thus the advocates of this view should have perhaps 10 times the coverage that you now give them.

Clifford Eddy
Webster, N.Y.