Letter writer needs to answer the question

GEOFF Castle has clearly missed my point about his belief that increasing carbon dioxide will cause rising temperatures. He echoed my explanation that carbon dioxide makes the atmosphere opaque at certain wavelengths, so that radiated heat must escape from the colder higher altitudes. But he ignored the evidence of spectroscopy from space that at these wavelengths the atmosphere is as opaque as it can get.

Increasing CO2 cannot substantially increase this effect. Over the past 14 years, CO2 has continued to escalate while temperatures have shown no significant rise. The alarmist predictions of Al Gore have failed to materialise while apocalyptic claims about glaciers and ice-sheets have been retracted with apologies.

No reputable scientist would insist that climate change cannot happen, but no reputable scientist would claim certainty on the basis of the present flimsy and flawed evidence.

Geoff clearly believes that it is the duty of any concerned scientist to spread alarm. I see that he is now pinning his hopes on scaring us with tales of overabundant vegetation in the nutrient-rich atmosphere.

I hope that he will recall and answer the final words of my previous letter, “Please let us have your chain of reasoning. Will a carbon tax actually reduce the amount of coal being dug? Will it halt the rise in atmospheric carbon? And will that have any effect whatsoever on global temperatures and our comfort?”

JOHN BILLINGSLEY,

Toowoomba