Letter: Gore just messenger in climate change issue

Dear Editor:

This letter is in response to one wrote by Garman Guthrie, (“Gore all of a sudden silent on global warming,”  Dec. 19).

I agree, Al Gore isn’t an “exciting public speaker” but in the case in question (global warming/climate change) “he is just one of many messengers” who are trying to warn people of the consequences of continuing down a path that we have mistakenly followed for too long.

Since it’s your opinion that global warming – or, climate change per your quote is “all nonsense” – the following things are just some that sort of puzzle me.

Perhaps someone can explain why the arctic ice-pack is “rapidly” disappearing? Why are so many glaciers melting at an alarming pace? Why are ocean currents changing so dramatically? Why are so many Eskimo villages forced to “firmer ground” as the permafrost melts under their roads and homes?

Where does the pollution that gets spewed out go to? Does it magically disappear – as the folks who dumped garbage in the ocean preached? Skin cancer is becoming very prevalent. Is there no ozone layer to worry about?

I’m sure the earth isn’t colliding with the sun, nor is the sun getting hotter. My old science teachers taught us that the sun is actually burning itself up? So, just exactly what is causing these things? 

I happen to believe that pollution is a serious threat. I remember in the 1960s when Libby was said to have the dirtiest air of any place in Montana. Ask those who lived out on East Fifth what happened to clothes left hanging or cars left out in the open. What industry did to the air quality in Libby “then” would be considered small potatoes to what is happening to our air and water today.

There is a problem and it isn’t going away just because somebody thinks “it’s nonsense.”

Robert E. Johns

Castle Rock, Wash.