Global warming is not political football

I respond to the New York Times article “Antarctic ice melt alarming” in the Tuesday Dispatch. I am alarmed and frightened by warming ocean temperatures and other catastrophic weather events that are occurring with greater frequency.

The belief in the validity of climate change has become a political issue, with the Republican faithful lining up to claim it a bogus theory. They say it is nothing more than a natural cyclical event, uninfluenced by human conduct.

Science fiction is an entertainment genre that crosses a diversified audience both here and abroad. A whole generation of people approaching retirement grew up watching Star Trek. This was science fiction, but global warming is not science fiction. It is a fact, supported by 95 percent of the science community.

Last week, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida reiterated in a speech his endorsement of the widely held view within his party that human conduct is unrelated to climate change ( New York Times article, last Monday’s Dispatch). Neither time nor space will permit me to cite the mass of evidence contrary to these notions.

Rubio is purported to be making a run for the U.S. presidency in 2016. This should not be viewed as a Democratic or Republican issue. I cannot believe that he personally holds these views of the “great uninformed masses” that he’s trying to identify with. By and large, these are the same people who form the Christian right wing and believe in a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis in the Bible’s Old Testament.

Our planet, as we know it, is on a path to destruction. Are we going to join as one people to confront a universal threat to our planet? TOM TWYFORD

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