Comic strip raises major climate concern

In the Jan. 15 Gazette, the “Mallard Fillmore” comic makes fun of “man-made-global-warming zealots” who don't know that we “now know that they've found global warming on Mars.”

While most of us do not get our science from the comics, it would be foolish not to challenge this. Fillmore cites with a footnote his source: nationalgeographic.com/news. If you go to that website, you'll find the article he references, now almost 4 years old: “Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Humans, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says” (Feb. 28, 2007).

The “they” Fillmore refers to is one Russian scientist, Habibullo Abdussamutov, head of research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory.

Abdussamutov claims that data from NASA's Mars Global Survey and Odyssey missions are evidence that the current global warming on Earth is being caused by changes in the sun. If you read the article, you will see that Abdussamutov's position has not been well-received: “Most scientists now fear that the massive amount of carbon dioxide humans are pumping into the air will lead to a catastrophic rise in the Earth's temperatures, dramatically raising sea levels as glaciers melt and leading to extreme weather worldwide.”

You only need to live in Cedar Rapids since 2008 or to read the daily newspaper to know that we have been living in a period of extreme weather. To continue to deny climate change is to stand against the wisdom of the majority of our own scientists and our own best interests.

Charles R. Crawley

Cedar Rapids