Many dispute warming

Reporter Jonathan Brunt says he thinks there is a consensus among climate scientists that “human activity contributes significantly to global warming” and that various area professors think so too, though one professor warned him not to use the term “consensus.”

Www.petitionproject.org lists 31,478 American scientist signers of a petition stating, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”

Signers so far include 9,029 Ph.D.s, 3,803 people with degrees in climatology, various atmospheric sciences, various earth sciences and various environmental sciences, 2,365 with degrees in physics, 3,126 with degrees in chemistry, and 22,184 others. 661 are from Washington state, including many Ph.D.s.

Many Web sites dispute the media’s “consensus.” One example quotes the president-elect of the American Association of State Climatologists (generally prominent university professors): “I can tell you that there is a great deal of global warming skepticism among my colleagues … the global warming scenarios are looking shakier and shakier.”

Don R. Peters

Spokane