Your Opinion: Let advances, not alarms, guide climate response

Dear Editor:

Our planet does seem to be warming, although at a lower rate than alarmists have predicted. It has always been warming, or cooling, but there is no need to devastate our economy with the draconian measures proposed by Obama. Borrowing billions and handing the money to third world nations, bankrupting the coal industry and putting people out of work, etc. is not the answer.

The 2013 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that observed Global Mean Seal Level (GMSL) has increased at an average rate of 3.2mm/yr from 1993-2010. It bases its future projections on an increased rate of 3.7mm/yr. Contrary to Al Gore's claim that sea levels will rise 20 feet the IPCC's "best" projection is for a 13-inch rise by the end of the century. Do the scientific elite (probably the same class of people who knew that heavier than air flight was impossible, until a couple of bicycle mechanics proved them wrong) believe that we in the U.S. are incapable of dealing with these increases? Twenty-five percent of the Netherlands is below sea level, some as much as 25 feet below sea level. If the people in the Netherlands can deal with their situation we in the U.S. can do the same.

In 1988 Dr. James Hansen of the Goddard Institute of Space Studies told the U.S. Congress that the world would warm by one degree C every 20 years until 2050. He has proved to be an incredible alarmist. Now NOAA has found new fudge factors to apply to discount the last 20 years of reduced rate of global warming. The IPCC refuses to acknowledge newer studies showing flaws in their climate sensitivity figures.

Global warming might make some areas of the planet less habitable but it would also open millions of acres in the northern regions of North America and Asia to habitation and farming.

Technological advances have dramatically improved our quality of life over the past 100 years. Why should we not expect even greater advances? Fuel cells might power the vehicles we drive, or vehicles that are self-driving. In a hundred years we may have undersea colonies or be colonizing other planets, or even other star systems. In 1869 how many (other than science fiction writer Jules Verne) believed that we would land men on the moon within 100 years?