This is a rebuttal to the “Warming warning overrated” article published in the Nov. 9 issue of The University News. If one wishes to play the political card of Repub-licans vs. Democrats on this issue, feel free, but to misstate facts does a disservice to the global warming and pollution issue. Furthermore, please do not confuse the issue of global warming, climate change and pollution with Democrats “imposing control over the American people and the world,” as Brett Kostrzewski stated. An article over the loss of civil liberties of reasonable search and seizure, right to privacy and proper use of warrant as brought about by our current administration is a whole different ballgame.

It is a fact that the five hottest years on record have all occurred from 1997 to 2004. Of these five, 1998 was the warmest year on record, with an average global temperature of 14.71 degrees Celsius. This increase in temperature will not necessarily lead to increased growing season, better weather and increased productivity. A report prepared for the U.S. Department of Defense in 2003 investigated the security implications of abrupt climate change over the next 20 years.

One scenario showed that rising temperatures could bring large-scale drought in critical agricultural regions worldwide, extreme temperature drops in some regions (his article points out snows in Malibu, Calif. and Miami Beach, Fla.) and searing heat in others and civil unrest and mass migrations from spreading insecurity about water and food supplies. The state of Minnesota is predicting a substantial loss of the corn crop productivity in 2007 due to drought and higher-than-average temperatures.

While there is no dispute that the oceans and sun regulate our temperature and weather, our author neglects to mention that CO2 traps particles in the atmosphere that radiate the heat back into the earth, causing further increase in temperature. It is a little thing called the “Greenhouse Effect” that even our current Republican President George W. Bush acknowledges exists.

In September of 2005, before the Group 8 meeting in Scotland, “Bush publicly acknowledged that the surface of the Earth was getting warmer and that human-caused greenhouse gases were contributing to the problem.”

If you warm the ocean, you alter the weather patterns, if you trap heat in the atmosphere, you alter the weather patterns, if you increase CO2, you therefore alter the weather patterns. The author neglects to regard the increased use of electricity to power air conditioners, fans, and agricultural tools for these warmer temperatures he thinks would make for a better world. Increased electricity usage means increased energy production leading to increased CO2 production.

The use of current alternative fuels (biodiesel, ethanol 85, etc.) is not a panacea for the energy crisis and CO2 production that results. But they do provide a starting point for some other technology. The horse and carriage system was used for centuries before the car-no one can foresee what current innovation might birth, if allowed to grow. If we deride everything then we will never try anything.

I had no idea being responsible to my fellow humans by trying to reduce my carbon imprint, limiting my waste, trying to recycle and make the Earth a better place was political. When did it become a Democratic or Republican thing to be a better citizen by treating the planet better, by treating others better and by trying to treat the Earth better?

Lewis Griffith is a graduate student at Saint Louis University.