Don’t present cause of global warming as fact

A May 26 article in The Gazette by McClatchy Newspapers, “Tornadoes! Floods! Droughts! Scientists blame global warming,” discussed scientists' opinions about connections between recent severe weather events and global warming.

The article contained this sentence: “All of these changes are part of the general shift in the world's climate known as global warming - primarily the result of billions of tons of heat-trapping gases released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, as well as deforestation.”

From where does this conclusion come? Is this the opinion of the author? This little tidbit about global warming primarily caused by burning fossil fuels and deforestation appears to be presented as a fact.

Man-caused global warming is often described as a scientific consensus. To quote the late Michael Crichton, “The work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right.”

I have read other articles in The Gazette that presented as fact that man's activities are the cause for global warming. Yet, as I read various opinions, this does not seem to be an uncontested fact. Separate the facts from the opinions and identify the sources of the opinions.

Frank Wilson

Cedar Rapids