Mona Charen (“Like weather, science changes,” Opinion page, Aug. 30) states that it is an “inconvenient fact that there has been no increase in global temperature since 1998.” She also thinks that it is “bizarre” to claim that climate change is accelerating.

Really! Check out the average global temperatures calculated by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Their charting shows that 2010 topped off the warmest decade in history, tying 2005 as the hottest year in 131 years of record-keeping. Nine of the 10 warmest years happened in the last decade. You will also see that the Earth’s temperature is clearly rising at an increasing rate. Two-thirds of the increase in global temperature since the 1880s has occurred in the last 40 years.

Scott Melville

Spokane