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February 28, 2002 e-mail to the Editor Final Try at Publication Dear Editor: The IN BRIEF section on page A8 of 2/26 L.A. Times has the second article on the right column entitled, "El Nino Is Relatively Recent, Fossils Show" is obviously miss-titled given the content of the article it is reporting. According to Professor C. Fred T. Andrus of the University of Georgia's article in the Feb. 22 issue of Science states, (Pacific) "ocean catfish lived in water that averaged 6 to 7 degrees warmer 6,000 years ago than now". This means the warm temperature we associate with the El Nino is not recent, but ancient and the article should read, "La Nina (cold water)Is Relatively Recent, Fossils Show". Hello! Those who fear global warming. If the ocean water now is 6 to 7 degrees colder than 6,000 years ago, then doesn't this perspective and this fact alone make the 1 to 2 degree rise in ocean temperature of the last 200 years as cause for treaties (as in the Kyoto Protocol), a flurry of heated debate and laws passing such as currently in the California State Assembly and before Congress seem downright foolish and a waste of concern better placed on protecting habitat and cleaning up water, air and soils of true pollutants i.e. carcinogens, mutagens and biological inhibiters called pesticides and herbicides that we are spreading around with seeming insufficient scientific, public or legislative investigation. As many more people die each winter from the effects of cold than die from the effects of heat in the summer, it is inhumane and contributory to the death of people to act to cool the planet. More animals and plants die each winter from the effects of cold than from the effects of heat in summer, so it is not in the best interest to the environment to act to cool the planet. 250 million Monarch Butterflies just froze to death in Mexico last week because they couldn't fly far enough south to escape effects of winter cold. As for real worry about climate, do the names Nebraskan, Kansan, Illinoian and Wisconsin mean anything? How about their European names, Grunz, Mindel, Riss and Wurm. These are the four most substantiated Ice Ages that have covered Earth for 90% of the last two million years. The Sangamon (last) interglacial summer lasted only about 10,000 years as did the Yarmouth (after the Kansan) and the Aftonian (after the first Ice Age). The last time I looked, the books told me the last Ice Age ended about 10,550 years ago. This time called by gelogists the Sangamon summer ended 70,000 years ago with summer snows on established northern European cultures, disrupting and probably sending northern tribes south with the coming of the Wisconsin Ice Age. Vestiges of this last Ice Age still linger such as the mile thick ice sheet still covering Greenland and glaciers that got as far south as the tropics. The trend is clear in the geologic and astronomical record for all who are willing to see-the Earth is going slowly and eventually to a bitter cold planetary death, just like has happened to the planet Mars. Heal the Harbor is the only environmental group that while still opposed to oil company based pollution and offshore oil drilling, has researched the climate debate and literature and opposes any limits or restriction on carbon dioxide per se. Dry Ice (frozen CO2), carbon dioxide gas, the same CO2 you breath out is being unjustly accused of being a pollutant and human beings as being polluters under these laws, just for breathing. With best wishes, I remain Sincerely yours, Tim Beck |