Checking climate facts — really!
Keith Sketchley’s letter (“Facts on climate change should be checked”, Aug. 24) criticized Jane Kilthei (Aug. 17) for not checking her facts regarding the 2 C threshold of serious harm from our warming climate.
As a matter of fact, Kilthei’s facts were indeed correct, agreeing with the worldwide community of climate experts. But Sketchley then goes on to state some misconceptions himself, probably having read material from the petroleum-funded climate skeptic community. He blithely states that the Medieval Warm Period (800-1400 AD) was above that 2 C threshold, which is total nonsense. Most climate experts agree that the MWP was confined mostly to parts of northern Europe, while the global average temperature possibly approached early 20th century values at best.
Sketchley then mistakenly suggests that the “atmospheric warming of greenhouse gases has already achieved maximum warming limits” — based on what? He further suggests that a (2 C) warmer climate would be positive for humanity. Such statements are misleading to your other readers. He should check out the sub-tropics where over half the human race subsists, and where desertification of the Sahel, east Africa, south Africa, and the Middle East caused by global warming in recent decades, has caused unusual prolonged droughts, widespread famine, and conflicts over remaining arable land and water, and has left some 65 million climate refugees without homes.
The same climate systems (sub-tropical high pressure systems) are also mostly responsible for our warmer and drier summers, water shortages, and heatwaves throughout the middle latitudes. And there is more to come! Is all this beneficial to mankind?
As of 2016, global average temperatures were already more than 1.5 C above the 1900-30 average, and rising rapidly! Meanwhile, atmospheric CO2 concentrations continue to rise at more than 2 ppm per year. And by the way, solar energy is far more affordable than petroleum to poor people around the world. Check out your own facts, as Ms. Kilthei did. And consider lowering your carbon footprint, as we all should, for the benefit of our grandchildren.
Geoff Strong
Atmospheric/climate scientist
Cowichan Bay