Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Letter: A response to ‘There is nothing to debate about global warming’

Frank C. Müller/Wikimedia Commons
Frank C. Müller/Wikimedia Commons

To the Editor in response to “There is nothing to debate about global warming,”

Thanks for the excellent editorial, “There is nothing to debate about global warming.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports make it clear to any rational person that we need to move past the phony “debate” the fossil fuel corporations want to keep people fixated on and act on solutions. Here’s hoping UMass has a Divest Now movement, but we need something much bigger to get rid of fossil fuels altogether in time to avoid what climate scientists now project will be “catastrophic” climate change if we delay.
Eight Nobel Prize-winning economists and the Harvard economist who is a co-author of the latest IPCC report advocate a consumer-friendly carbon tax to transition efficiently to clean energy without economic pain. A steadily increasing carbon pollution tax rebated directly to consumers, a “tax swap,” will let the market make the switch to renewables as carbon fuels get increasingly more expensive than solar and wind. This is revenue-neutral and has no government regulations. As they scale up, solar and wind get cheaper and storage/intermittency problem has been solved. Even Ed Schultz and a number of other prominent Republicans are backing this idea, so politically it’s possible. Visit the Citizens Climate Lobby website for details and get involved, or at least write Congress. All we lack is the political will to get this done. We are the solution.

Lynn Goldfarb

97 Deer Ford Drive
Lancaster, PA

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    dhuntApr 23, 2014 at 1:33 pm

    I see Ms. Goldfarb has gotten the memo… calling anyone who disagrees with the Holy Writ of AGW “irrational”.

    Here’s a clue-by-four for Goldfarb. AGW is not science. Not anymore. What used to be a legitimate inquiry into our climate has become the home of billions of dollars of grant money for those who continue to find results that uphold the false claim of man-made global warming.

    Let’s go to basics. A scientific theory must, BY DEFINITION, contain the ability to prove itself false. It MUST make predictions that are falsifiable. If the theory is true, X(i) will occur, Y(i) will not. One of the central things in AGW is the “hot spot” in the upper atmosphere. It is THE CORE of EVERY model. Without it, AGW models FAIL.

    So is that hot spot there? No. Not even a trace of it.

    RATIONAL PEOPLE, Ms. Goldfarb, understand that when a scientific theory fails to match REAL WORLD DATA, when across multiple predictions it FAILS TO MATCH that data, it is the THEORY that is flawed.

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