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Letters
Let’s Hear It For Science
Would you fly on a plane designed by opinion (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28)? Does no one remember what science is for?
Science provides a path to reality — the kind of reality that allows for planes to fly and medicines to heal.
Science provides a path out of the chaotic sea of opinion that “Global Warming Is Crap” presents, as if it mattered. This sea of opinion is a lot like “crap.” Everyone contributes some and it stinks. Oddly, though, with opinions, everyone thinks theirs is the right one. Yet in reality, mere opinions do not matter.
Actions matter. Results matter. Science matters.
I’ve pored over the evidence that is independent of opinion. Whether we believe it or not, the evidence has piled up that change is coming whether we’re prepared for it or not.
This is not about fear; it’s about what matters. We disagree with reality at our own peril.
In the end, our biggest problem may indeed be not climate change itself but that we seem obsessed with talking about science as if it didn’t matter.
By the way, I attended the COP-15 United Nations conference in Copenhagen as part of the Sierra Club delegation. I attended Scripps Institution of Oceanography briefings and have their materials.
- Carolyn Chase
- via email
On Thin Ice
I was curious about the author’s statement that Arctic sea ice coverage is the same today as it was 30 years ago (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28). That appears to be the case if you compare January to January, although the images at the Cryosphere Today don’t show the thinning of the ice. However, if you look at September 1980 and September 2009, the difference becomes very clear. It looks like 2009 has 30 to 40 percent less ice coverage than 1980.
Also, the theory of underwater volcanoes contributing to the melting of the Arctic surface ice has been shown to be inaccurate. The heat stays trapped near the bottom, and there is not enough of it to raise surface temperatures.
- Lawrance Bailey
- via email
Bill Manson replies: Mr. Bailey is right. I should have asked about summer-to-summer as well as winter-to-winter ice comparisons.
Too Small To Matter
Thanks for publishing this article (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28). The skeptics should be heard.
Carbon dioxide is currently around 380 parts per million of the atmosphere. That’s 0.038 percent!!! Even if doubled to 0.076 percent, how can such a minuscule part of the atmosphere possibly cause a temperature rise of 5 to 10 percent as claimed? There simply is not enough mass to do that (subatomic particles to be energized by heat radiation and reradiating it back to earth).
The second claimed anthropogenic greenhouse gas — methane — is even scarcer. It’s measured in parts per billion!
The primary greenhouse gas is water vapor at 1 to 4 percent of the atmosphere. If there was warming, the sea would warm, increasing evaporation, increasing clouds, which reflect the sun’s heat back to space, thus causing cooling. The process should be self-compensating. It’s nonanthropogenic, of course, so rarely gets mentioned.
Then there are the changes in solar output and the weakening of the earth’s magnetic field, weakening its protective magnetosphere, admitting more solar radiation to consider. These are rarely mentioned, also.
Do your readers a favor. Look into the so-called science and see if these things are not so. Then, let’s get on with reducing air, water, and land pollution — real problems causing real harm now — not perhaps in 2100.
- John Suhr
- via email
Ice Out, Boats In
The Reader has done a disservice to all of us with airing the views of this Luddite Wampler (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28). Global warming certainly is not “crap.” We all know it isn’t crap, including the illustrator of the polar bear on the ice chunk. I’m a mariner, and if anyone would like to know what the maritime community is up to regarding arctic ice, I suggest they look at Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment from the Institute of the North’s website: www.institutenorth.org. Available in PDF, it’ll tell you about the huge boom in maritime activity in the arctic that is occurring as the ice recedes in the summer. Activity such as marine traffic, energy exploration, and tourism, which was unthinkable just a few years ago. Wampler is crap.
- Tom Summers
- via email
Use It Twice
They used to play baseball in the football stadium (“National Football Liars,” “City Lights,” January 28). Why can’t they play football in the baseball stadium? What happens in Petco Park when baseball season is over? We need to use our expensive assets as frequently as possible.
Thank you, Don, for as always a very good article.
- Mary Slupe
- via email
Football Business
I have a suggestion for the Spanos family (“National Football Liars,” “City Lights,” January 28). I understand you are in the development business and have done very well. Since you think a new stadium is needed and a good investment, why don’t you put together a proposal and make an offering to private investors, venture capitalists, and any other investment group?
Your proposed business plan would, of course, offer a reasonable rate of return, and I am sure you will get investors. After you get some money together, make offers to the property owners in the area, maybe downtown, and assemble the block of properties needed for your dream stadium. Then get it built.
If it is really a moneymaking venture, there will be no problem getting the project completed with private money. Going this route means the manager of the investor group could also promote and receive all the revenues. Other than the 18 or so game days, there are 340 days each year the place can take in money by renting it out for concerts, other sporting events, health fairs, swap meets, revival meetings, or any other large event.
If you can’t figure out an offering with a rate of return that will get investors, then I guess you’ll play those few home games at Qualcomm. That’s the way it works in business, and football is, after all, in the end, a business. Right, Mr. Spanos?
P.S.: A new public library would be used every day and open to all people.
- Julie McKane
- San Diego
Emperor Of Whisper House
Thank you so much for your insightful review of Whisper House (Theater Review, January 28). When I read some of the other reviews, I wondered if they had seen the same play I did. Bravo for the man with some taste and the guts to say the emperor has no clothes.
Name Withheld
Perfect Prison
Thank you for letting us know about Ad Seg’s music, which will help educate listeners (“Dope and a Pistol,” “Blurt,” January 28).
In spite of its faults, Donovan is generally known as the best-run prison in the state. It reduced its recidivism rate from 70 percent to 21 percent through rehab, drug, and education programs. Using false economy and faulty logic, funding for those programs was reduced or eliminated by the state. That makes no sense considering the high cost of incarcerating people.
The Reader is always interesting, and I often learn about topics I would not think to investigate on my own.
- Marie Callahan
- via email
Delightful Diva
What happened to the diva diary? I looked forward to reading her column each week. I hope you didn’t drop it for good. At least her column was positive and funny — the only one I could count on to make me chuckle. Most of the stuff you have in the paper is SOOOOOOO… negative! There is good, fun stuff around too. Even your movie reviewer seems to be too jaded to find any fun in the movies he reviews.
- Nedda Viscovich
- via email
“Diary of a Diva” resumes this week. — Editor
Irishman Slapped?
I read with interest your story on Brett Favre (“Sporting Box,” January 21), until in the very last paragraph, Patrick D. used the term “bitch-slapped.” To me that is absolutely inexcusable. I don’t think I need to explain why “bitch-slapped” is intolerable.
To add to the shame, it sounds like this columnist is of Irish descent.
- Kathy Saunders
- via email
Here's something you might be interested in.
Letters
Letters
Let’s Hear It For Science
Would you fly on a plane designed by opinion (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28)? Does no one remember what science is for?
Science provides a path to reality — the kind of reality that allows for planes to fly and medicines to heal.
Science provides a path out of the chaotic sea of opinion that “Global Warming Is Crap” presents, as if it mattered. This sea of opinion is a lot like “crap.” Everyone contributes some and it stinks. Oddly, though, with opinions, everyone thinks theirs is the right one. Yet in reality, mere opinions do not matter.
Actions matter. Results matter. Science matters.
I’ve pored over the evidence that is independent of opinion. Whether we believe it or not, the evidence has piled up that change is coming whether we’re prepared for it or not.
This is not about fear; it’s about what matters. We disagree with reality at our own peril.
In the end, our biggest problem may indeed be not climate change itself but that we seem obsessed with talking about science as if it didn’t matter.
By the way, I attended the COP-15 United Nations conference in Copenhagen as part of the Sierra Club delegation. I attended Scripps Institution of Oceanography briefings and have their materials.
- Carolyn Chase
- via email
On Thin Ice
I was curious about the author’s statement that Arctic sea ice coverage is the same today as it was 30 years ago (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28). That appears to be the case if you compare January to January, although the images at the Cryosphere Today don’t show the thinning of the ice. However, if you look at September 1980 and September 2009, the difference becomes very clear. It looks like 2009 has 30 to 40 percent less ice coverage than 1980.
Also, the theory of underwater volcanoes contributing to the melting of the Arctic surface ice has been shown to be inaccurate. The heat stays trapped near the bottom, and there is not enough of it to raise surface temperatures.
- Lawrance Bailey
- via email
Bill Manson replies: Mr. Bailey is right. I should have asked about summer-to-summer as well as winter-to-winter ice comparisons.
Too Small To Matter
Thanks for publishing this article (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28). The skeptics should be heard.
Carbon dioxide is currently around 380 parts per million of the atmosphere. That’s 0.038 percent!!! Even if doubled to 0.076 percent, how can such a minuscule part of the atmosphere possibly cause a temperature rise of 5 to 10 percent as claimed? There simply is not enough mass to do that (subatomic particles to be energized by heat radiation and reradiating it back to earth).
The second claimed anthropogenic greenhouse gas — methane — is even scarcer. It’s measured in parts per billion!
The primary greenhouse gas is water vapor at 1 to 4 percent of the atmosphere. If there was warming, the sea would warm, increasing evaporation, increasing clouds, which reflect the sun’s heat back to space, thus causing cooling. The process should be self-compensating. It’s nonanthropogenic, of course, so rarely gets mentioned.
Then there are the changes in solar output and the weakening of the earth’s magnetic field, weakening its protective magnetosphere, admitting more solar radiation to consider. These are rarely mentioned, also.
Do your readers a favor. Look into the so-called science and see if these things are not so. Then, let’s get on with reducing air, water, and land pollution — real problems causing real harm now — not perhaps in 2100.
- John Suhr
- via email
Ice Out, Boats In
The Reader has done a disservice to all of us with airing the views of this Luddite Wampler (“Global Warming Is Crap,” Cover Story, January 28). Global warming certainly is not “crap.” We all know it isn’t crap, including the illustrator of the polar bear on the ice chunk. I’m a mariner, and if anyone would like to know what the maritime community is up to regarding arctic ice, I suggest they look at Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment from the Institute of the North’s website: www.institutenorth.org. Available in PDF, it’ll tell you about the huge boom in maritime activity in the arctic that is occurring as the ice recedes in the summer. Activity such as marine traffic, energy exploration, and tourism, which was unthinkable just a few years ago. Wampler is crap.
- Tom Summers
- via email
Use It Twice
They used to play baseball in the football stadium (“National Football Liars,” “City Lights,” January 28). Why can’t they play football in the baseball stadium? What happens in Petco Park when baseball season is over? We need to use our expensive assets as frequently as possible.
Thank you, Don, for as always a very good article.
- Mary Slupe
- via email
Football Business
I have a suggestion for the Spanos family (“National Football Liars,” “City Lights,” January 28). I understand you are in the development business and have done very well. Since you think a new stadium is needed and a good investment, why don’t you put together a proposal and make an offering to private investors, venture capitalists, and any other investment group?
Your proposed business plan would, of course, offer a reasonable rate of return, and I am sure you will get investors. After you get some money together, make offers to the property owners in the area, maybe downtown, and assemble the block of properties needed for your dream stadium. Then get it built.
If it is really a moneymaking venture, there will be no problem getting the project completed with private money. Going this route means the manager of the investor group could also promote and receive all the revenues. Other than the 18 or so game days, there are 340 days each year the place can take in money by renting it out for concerts, other sporting events, health fairs, swap meets, revival meetings, or any other large event.
If you can’t figure out an offering with a rate of return that will get investors, then I guess you’ll play those few home games at Qualcomm. That’s the way it works in business, and football is, after all, in the end, a business. Right, Mr. Spanos?
P.S.: A new public library would be used every day and open to all people.
- Julie McKane
- San Diego
Emperor Of Whisper House
Thank you so much for your insightful review of Whisper House (Theater Review, January 28). When I read some of the other reviews, I wondered if they had seen the same play I did. Bravo for the man with some taste and the guts to say the emperor has no clothes.
Name Withheld
Perfect Prison
Thank you for letting us know about Ad Seg’s music, which will help educate listeners (“Dope and a Pistol,” “Blurt,” January 28).
In spite of its faults, Donovan is generally known as the best-run prison in the state. It reduced its recidivism rate from 70 percent to 21 percent through rehab, drug, and education programs. Using false economy and faulty logic, funding for those programs was reduced or eliminated by the state. That makes no sense considering the high cost of incarcerating people.
The Reader is always interesting, and I often learn about topics I would not think to investigate on my own.
- Marie Callahan
- via email
Delightful Diva
What happened to the diva diary? I looked forward to reading her column each week. I hope you didn’t drop it for good. At least her column was positive and funny — the only one I could count on to make me chuckle. Most of the stuff you have in the paper is SOOOOOOO… negative! There is good, fun stuff around too. Even your movie reviewer seems to be too jaded to find any fun in the movies he reviews.
- Nedda Viscovich
- via email
“Diary of a Diva” resumes this week. — Editor
Irishman Slapped?
I read with interest your story on Brett Favre (“Sporting Box,” January 21), until in the very last paragraph, Patrick D. used the term “bitch-slapped.” To me that is absolutely inexcusable. I don’t think I need to explain why “bitch-slapped” is intolerable.
To add to the shame, it sounds like this columnist is of Irish descent.
- Kathy Saunders
- via email