There’s no planet B

Kol hakavod to Richard H. Schwartz for “An existential threat to Israel is being largely ignored” (July 4). He discusses many frightening examples of how Israel and, indeed, the entire world are increasingly threatened by climate change and why major action is needed as soon as possible to avert a climate catastrophe.

And kol hakavod to The Jerusalem Post for publishing this important, challenging article. It reinforces the message in your June 14 editorial, “Save the beach,” in which you urge citizens to “demand that the environment be a central issue in the upcoming [election] campaign, [that] Israel should be a world leader in environmental protection, [and that] every candidate in every campaign forum should be asked, “What is your position ... to help sustain a healthy Israeli environment.” Please continue to use your outstanding reporters, commentators, and editors to help spread these urgent messages, because the future of Israel and all of humanity depends on it. BATZION SHLOMI Afula

The gist of the article is that climate change is being driven by increasing CO2 produced by human activity, and that the changes are an existential threat to Israel.

In fact there are many qualified scientists who question the first assumption. The article mentions that 97% of those studying climate change hold the view that human activity is the main cause of the phenomenon. If this were an election, 97% would be a landslide, and the case would be closed, but that isn’t how science works. There are a myriad of cases in the history of science where the popular view was found to be wrong. Science is decided by experiment and by prediction. In the case of climate science, experiments are not possible, so the CO2 hypothesis can be proven only by prediction.

The hypothesis has a number of glaring holes. It does not explain known earlier warm periods such as those that occurred in Roman times and the medieval warm period. Most significantly, the predictions produced by the computer models since the late 1990s have been wrong. The temperatures they predicted were grossly higher than those that occurred. We should be highly skeptical of prophets that were wrong in the past. In fact, there has been no significant increase in atmospheric temperatures for the past 20 years.

Secondly, we should look critically at secondary effects claimed by the alarmists. A favorite is the claim of increased and more severe hurricanes and typhoons; there is no statistical or logical basis for this. In any case, this is not a threat to Israel. The other claim is that melting icecaps will raise sea levels to swamp the coastal plain. To date only the Arctic icecap has diminished significantly, and as this is a floating cap, melting has no effect on sea levels. It has been estimated that the Greenland icecap may melt in about 1,000 years and cause significant increases in sea levels. I fact in the last century sea levels have risen a few centimeters, not a significant amount, and shifting tectonic plates may well negate this effect.

The alarmists also ignore the positive effects of increased CO2, namely the very significant increase in plant growth, both natural and agricultural, an effect that can easily be proven experimentally

To summarize; looking at the various threats to Israel, climate change doesn’t rate. STEPHEN COHEN Ma’aleh Adumim

No matter what one’s opinion is on a possible human role in global warming, everyone agrees that we should all do what we can to reduce pollution, littering, and unnecessary waste of resources (limit our use of disposable plates and cups, ride a bike once in a while instead of driving, etc.)

It shouldn’t take a climate catastrophe to make us more considerate and thoughtful global citizens.

TAMIR LEVIN

Tiberius