Globe is heating up, regardless of biases

Confirmation bias. We all do it. We tend to read and take seriously articles that confirm what we already believe. Donald Engels and I have this in common. His letter from Saturday, April 15, about Miami’s flooding being due to everything but global warming references Dr. Roy Spencer of University of Alabama as a respected source of data, in contrast to NASA and NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), which he thinks falsify evidence. NASA and NOAA have done studies that indicate, unlike Dr. Spencer, that global warming has indeed been going on for the last 19 years. An article by Graham Readfearn on Desmog writes that Dr. Spencer also claims there is more evidence for creationism than for evolution. Results from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization find “The decade through 2010 was the warmest for both hemispheres and for land and sea … Almost 94 percent of countries logged their warmest 10 years on record, it said.” In fact, the organization said in 2016 that the 16 hottest years of the top 17 have occurred since 2000.

Engels is mostly correct according to most scientists that sea-level rise has been about 3 millimeters a year, but he doesn’t mention that this is about double the rate during the 20th century, which was 1.6 millimeters a year. A recent study published in the journal Nature has modeled that based on melting ice in the Antarctic, the amount of predicted sea-level rise could double to six feet by the end of the century. ( Washington Post, March 30, 2016) Sea-level rise is due to warming oceans and ice melt. The seas are absorbing 93.4 percent of the overall warming of the planet, according to the Intercontinental Panel on Climate Change, causing bleaching of coral reefs, endangering sea life and threatening disruption of the Gulf stream.

For another side of the story on Miami, search for “The Siege of Miami” in The New Yorker, Dec. 21 and 28, 2015. All low-lying islands and coasts are threatened; insect infestations are decimating forests; drought is turning the Amazon jungle from a carbon sink to a carbon source; disrupted agriculture is creating hunger and civil unrest; the list goes on.

I don’t expect Mr. Engels to change his mind. He can continue to read Dr. Spencer and others who tell him what he wants to hear. I will be doing the same. But 97 percent of scientists are saying global warming is a present and growing crisis. Reps. Carlos Curbelo (R) and Theodore Deustch (D) from Florida created the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. Even the conservative former Secretary of State James Baker, one of the members of the Republican-led Climate Leadership Council calling for a carbon fee and dividend, who himself says he’s not sure that climate change is human caused, says that given the near consensus of serious climate scientists that it is, it is just too much of a risk not to take action to mitigate it.

SHELLEY BUONAIUTO

Fayetteville