Time to face reality of climate change

Last month the Gazette published a guest column that is arguably fake news (“Another explanation for global warming,” May 3).

It is no secret that the work of scientists has sometimes been grossly misrepresented or hidden when it has financial implications. For decades the cigarette industry explicitly lied about both the cancer-causing and addictive effects of smoking.

Since at least the 1990s, well-funded misinformation campaigns have been widely used to hide the effects of burning fossil fuels and to confuse the public. Common false claims made by fossil-fuel lobbyists include: (1) global warming will not occur, or (2) warming temperatures are part of the Earth’s natural cycle, or (3) climate change will be benign and maybe even beneficial.

Today, the evidence for human-driven climate change is overwhelming. As predicted by climate scientists more than three decades ago, we are now living through the hottest years on record, polar ice is melting at an unprecedented rate, sea levels are rising rapidly, and we are experiencing more 100-year storms than the name implies. If we continue with business as usual, the climate models predict much worse to come.

It is time to stop questioning whether human-caused climate change is real. Instead we must slow it down and start mitigating its effects. Our state representatives are actively designing and sponsoring legislation, including a carbon fee, which was recently supported by the Northampton City Council.

This week, President Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, which is the most ambitious and comprehensive international agreement yet to address climate change. Instead of leaving this historic agreement, the U.S. should be a world leader in developing new industries and jobs that address the challenge of climate change.

Susan Voss

Northampton

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