I have some observations in reply to Wilfried G. Weber’s letter (The News, Nov. 16).
He claims everyone has a right to say what he thinks. True.
He claims other letter writers are right that climate change caused by galactic forces is normal. True.
He claims the theory of human caused climate change by carbon emissions is just a theory but not proved by any real scientists. False.
The “real scientists” are those that have contributed to the study of climate change through the publication of peer-reviewed papers in leading scientific journals. The “real scientists” are those who are part of the many national academies of science around the world.
Any serious examination of the facts will reveal that over 95 per cent of these qualified scientists agree that carbon emissions resulting from human activity are the major cause of climate change.
The exceptional rate of temperature rise in the last 100 years cannot be explained by natural causes such as solar energy.
Scientists who have published papers attempting to prove temperature increase is natural have been unsuccessful. The natural forces that once caused changes in climate now play a limited role and are dominated by the burning of fossil fuels.
Climate change has been under the microscopes of great numbers of scientists since the 1930’s when concerns about the impact of greenhouse gases arose.
The American Institute of Physics has an excellent objective outline of the history of this subject (http://www.aip.org/history/climate/20ctrend.htm).
Gerry Addy
Qualicum Beach