Use scientific knowledge

I attended Tom Ashbrook’s “On Point” on Sept 22. The topics were wild fire and climate change. Given the topics, I was dismayed by the extent to which panelist Sue Lani Madsen disagreed with the basic premise that climate change is profoundly affected by human activity. She stated that the science does not support this claim and used such examples as a glass being filled with ice and water. She stated that when the ice melts, the water does not spill out of the glass. This argument, while amusing the crowd, was not a reasonable response to all the real science on this subject.

In her Sept. 25 column, she goes on to further back up her claims, even though her column is not a science column, nor is she a scientist.

Sue Lani states that we should stop “arguing” about climate change and “adapt” to our changing world. A discussion about how to adapt to our changing environment is not a reasonable discussion without including human activity as one of the factors influencing climate change. This premise has been almost unanimously agreed upon. We cannot and should not make plans for our future without including scientific knowledge.

Christie Dill

Spokane