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Lincoln Daily News welcomes letters of appreciation, information and opinion on matters pertaining to the community. 
 
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Letters to the Editor
Lincoln Daily News
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL  62656

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Response to article: 'Iowa scientists: Drought a sign of climate change'

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To the editor:

I am responding to the article I see at "Iowa scientists: Drought a sign of climate change."

The scientists signing the Iowa Climate Statement are hugely overconfident in their assertions that we are headed for dangerous global warming and worsening drought. Considering the sun is thought to be entering its weakest cycles in 150 years, we may very well be in for global cooling, not warming; no one knows.

Contrary to popular opinion, the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events are not affected by our emissions of greenhouse gases, even if those emissions cause global warming. The 2011 Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change report (NIPCC -- see www.nipccreport.com) concluded: "...the data reveal there have not been any significant warming-induced increases in extreme weather events." This was the case whether the phenomenon studied was precipitation, floods, drought, storms, hurricanes, fire or other weather-related events. NIPCC author Dr. Madhav Khandekar demonstrated that extreme weather events are now occurring with about the same frequency as they did during the 1945-1977 cooling period.

[to top of second column in this letter]

To see if extremes are really on the rise, we must consult the National Climatic Data Center. We find that most records were set many decades ago. Here* are the statewide extreme weather records for Illinois:

  • Highest temperature: 1954

  • Lowest temperature: 1999

  • Most precipitation in a 24-hour period: 1996

  • Most snowfall in a 24 hour period: 1900

  • Greatest snow depth: 1900 and 1979

Since we have no chance of stopping warming, cooling or extreme weather events, we need to better prepare for such inevitable climate variability.

Sincerely,
Tom Harris, B.Eng., M.Eng. (thermofluids)
Executive Director
International Climate Science Coalition
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

[Posted November 28, 2012]

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