To the editor:
Re: “Letter: Olson backward on science cartoon,” Jan. 17.
I was sorry to see the Courier, a responsible newspaper, give nine column inches to B. Hoye’s outdated “facts” in his criticism of Geoff Olson‘s take on climate science and the Harper government. Contrary to Hoye’s claims, scientists now almost unanimously concur that “anthropogenic” human-caused global warning is a reality. (Which is not to say that solar flares have played no part in the warming.)
Hoye references the Medieval Warm Period. This has now been shown NOT to have been warmer than earth’s current temperature — now measured as the highest in at least 1300 years, and still rising .
According to Brian Fagan’s excellent book, The Great Warming, the Medieval Warm Period saw lovely temperatures and abundant harvests in Europe, but brutal, prolonged droughts in parts of the Americas, southeast Asia, Africa and elsewhere, with terrible famines.
Erratic temperatures prevailed in some other areas. Fagan calls the threat of epic droughts the “silent elephant” in the current climate situation, more worrisome even than the storms, floods and sea-level rises so much in the news. Keep up the good fight, Geoff!
Joan Bunn,
White Rock
