Mr. Melloan correctly notes that we should look to the facts, not to speculative computer models, to understand global climate change. The geologic record suggests Earth could stay warm for another 400,000 years, no matter what we put into the air. The latest ice age just ended some 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Warm periods that alternated with the ice ages of the past two million years persisted for 100,000 to 400,000 years each. A long warming trend unrelated to industrial gasses may have barely started.
Industry contributes too little carbon dioxide to affect global climate.
Industrial carbon dioxide, six billion tons annually, is a small fraction of the 700 billion tons per year from geologic and biologic processes. Increasing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide stimulates plant life, which in turn consumes more carbon dioxide. Marine plants, such as calcareous algae, and other reef-forming organisms can sequester vast amounts of carbon dioxide in the calcium carbonate, or limestone, that they produce. Extensive limestone deposits thousands of feet thick that occur throughout the geologic record provide evidence of this process. We accept our inability to prevent regional, transient, climatic catastrophes such as floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, yet people whose economic interest is vested in government grants to study greenhouse gasses claim we can alter global climate change that spans thousands of lifetimes.