Feeling the Heat
"Thank you for publishing your report on global warming. I hope someone reads it to George W. Bush." EVAHLEE RHODES San Jose, Calif.
Your coverage of global warming and the White House's opposition to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to cut carbon dioxide emissions was heartening [SPECIAL REPORT, April 9]. George W. Bush's decision is just the latest and perhaps the most serious in a string of setbacks on environmental issues that have come out of Washington. Bush and his colleagues should realize that without clean air and the right temperature to support life at all levels, a healthy economy won't be possible. Truly, our economic health depends on environmental health. JUDY MATA Hemet, Calif.
A strong case can be made that global warming is science fiction masquerading as fact. The Kyoto treaty would bind the U.S. to reduce "greenhouse gases" 7% below their 1990 levels by 2012. If the U.S. followed that provision, it could result in considerable price hikes for gasoline and a huge increase in electricity bills for most Americans. Global warming is a theory based, at this point, on speculative science, imprecise computer models and a lot of doom-and-gloom rhetoric. Despite what Chicken Little politicians claim, the scientific case is tenuous, at best. JOY LATHERS Colorado Springs, Colo.
Bush and his "old economy" corporate elite have only one thing to say to the world about global warming: "Let them eat CO2." ALAN MACDONALD Sanford, Maine
Scientists' lack of wisdom and certainty concerning global warming and our planet's future are exemplified by this ironic quote from your report: "Global warming could, paradoxically, throw the planet into another Ice Age." These doom-and-gloomers confuse even themselves. Perhaps these alarmists should ponder the idea that global climatic fluctuations are out of our control and that the God who has created the earth will also nourish it and sustain it. GARY HAERTEL Sussex, Wis.
Although it may seem as if the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, President Bush's reneging on his campaign promise to curb CO2 emissions is far more significant than his father's campaign flip-flop over no new taxes. Taxation of our citizens is, over time, an insignificant event, but this President's reversal presents long-term and life-threatening consequences that are being ignored under the pretext of U.S. economic viability. While his father's about-face was regarded as a political blunder, this President Bush's decision may facilitate a global environmental disaster. CARY GLICKSTEIN Delray Beach, Fla.
Anyone who believes that global warming is a threat has never spent a winter freezing in New England. JANE MAGLIACANE Gardner, Mass.
The U.S. was never a party to the Kyoto treaty, so we cannot pull out of it. As you pointed out, four years ago, the Senate voted 95 to 0 not to participate. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is certainly correct in saying no one should be surprised that the U.S. won't be abiding by Kyoto. ROBERT E. MCNULTY San Jose, Calif.