Humans are causing climate change

To the editor:

Lan Nowotny writes that climate change is a 'hoax” ('Climate change is a scare tactic,” March 26) and links the claim to an international leftist conspiracy to attack capitalism. I have no argument with his natural skepticism about climate change. However, he's 'shooting the bearer of bad news.” He needs to weigh the possibility that the bad news might, indeed, be true, and that his sources are flawed.

Doubters are natural. St. Thomas doubted Jesus' resurrection until he could touch His wounds, but Thomas's doubt won't work for weather.

We cannot wait until a tornado strikes before we take cover. Nowotny doesn't understand that science studies past trends and present evidence to predict the future. Meteorologists are using their intelligence to measure environmental conditions to project future weather so we can be safe. I'll bet Nowotny takes cover when the tornado sirens go off.

Why would he blindly accept the smears of right wing propagandists before believing the same scientists who work to keep him safe? Who is funding the propagandists? The same meteorologists he trusts and others (97 percent of the world's scientists) are projecting bad weather over the next century and beyond with devastating consequences. They've narrowed the cause of climate change to overuse of fossil fuels. But there are other, safer, ways to generate power and we can use the corporate world to develop them.

Don't shoot the scientists for predicting the truth. Instead, encourage the corporate world to respond.

James Conger

Iowa City