Evidence proves we cause global warming

Evidence proves we cause global warming

Keith Lockitch (Guest Column, 4/14) disputes the global warming "consensus" (his italics).

He offers no evidence to counter the findings of the great majority of experts on this topic, that "human carbon emissions are causing a planetary emergency."

The daily evidence of droughts, collapse of Arctic and Antarctic ice masses, the scarcity of food supplies leading to riots, the disappearance of species, the pollution of the ocean, and so on, convinces me that the planet is in danger. And there is no doubt that severe cutbacks in the use of carbon-based energy would cause untold suffering. But even if global warming is not happening, these cutbacks will probably occur because carbon-based energy, oil and its byproducts, will diminish due to an increasing demand for a non-renewable resource.

Lockitch's argument is typical of the Ayn Rand ideology, which celebrates the accomplishments of industrial civilization, without acknowledging their inevitable costs. Our way of life is simply destroying the planet, in the long run.

Water, the necessary and irreplaceable basis of life, is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the world. Desertification of large portions of the earth is reducing the capacity to grow food. Lokitch's last statement is telling: "what Earth Hour (turning off lights everywhere for one hour) represents is the renunciation of industrial civilization."

Ironically, he may be right. We may have to renounce our present form of civilization if life on Earth is to survive.

source-http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/