Your Opinion: Climate discussion advances

Dear Editor:

I agree with the title to Larry Johnson's Nov. 20 letter, "Let Science address climate." I also agree with his statement that the scientific method should lead our pollution discussion. But, Johnson fails in making his point that climate change is all about politics.

The truth is that 148 nations have made pledges to address global warming by reducing emissions. This includes the European Union, Russia, Canada, China, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, India and, yes, the United States. These countries are not all on the same ideological or political page but they do agree that climate change is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

The 148 countries are approaching the Paris Climate Conference with carbon reduction plans because they trust thousands of peer-reviewed studies by climate scientists. There isn't a single major scientific organization in the world that disagrees that climate change is a serious problem and that we must reduce CO2 emissions to avoid disaster.

Meanwhile, Mr. Johnson quotes John Coleman, a TV weatherman who has never published a peer-reviewed paper related to climate change. To add to his argument, Johnson references "regional" short-term temperature data to dispute "global" warming.

Fortunately, world leaders from President Obama to Pope Francis are listening to the scientists. About the only political leaders in the world who are climate skeptics are in the right wing of the Republican Party, but moderate Republicans facing tough campaigns are seeing climate denial as dangerous for their careers as it is for humanity.

In October, Kelly Ayotte became the first Republican senator to express support for Obama's Clean Power Plan. Then, she and three other Republicans formed a new Senate Energy and Environment Working Group to address climate change while helping the economy. In the U.S. House, Congressman Chris Gibson (R-NY) has been joined by 12 Republicans to move forward with discussions to address climate change.

There are good reasons why business-friendly Republicans should be on board with climate policy. Leading up to the Paris conference, 78 major companies urged governments to include carbon pricing as part of policies to curb global warming, saying an ambitious deal in Paris would create jobs and economic growth.

It is time that climate change deniers realize the conversation has moved beyond debating the well-established scientific fact that we must reduce harmful emissions. The productive conversation is about how can we most efficiently build our new clean-energy economy.