Is It Warm in Here?

May 28, 2009 - 12:00 a.m. EST

Editor,

The new electricity tax (commonly called cap and trade) is working its way through Congress. Also, a new CAFÉ standard was recently imposed on automobile manufacturers by the federal government. Both of these actions are based on the belief in global warming. Is global warming happening? If so, is it caused by man? Is it possible that it is not happening at all?

If something is warming, it means that the thing being warmed was at a lower temperature and now is at an increased temperature. If the globe is warming, we should see a pattern of record high temperatures occurring all over the globe. The record high temperature for South Carolina happened in 1954 (111 degrees). It has not been warmer for 55 years. For the individual states, it has been more than 70 years since a record high in 34 of them. The record high temperature in the United States was in July 1913 (Death Valley 134 degrees). That is 96 years ago. The highest temperature ever recorded in Europe happened in 1881 (Spain 122 degrees) 128 years ago. And lastly, the highest temperature ever recorded in the world was 136 degrees in Libya in 1922. These are hardly alarming trends.

It is also interesting to look at low temperatures. The lowest recorded temperature in South Carolina was in 1985. In the United States (excluding Alaska), the record was in 1954. The lowest temperature in the world was in 1983. In each case, the low has occurred between the time of the record high and the present day. Again, this shows no trend toward warming.

Thousands of years ago, it is believed that much of North America was covered with ice. Something in that period of time caused the globe to warm. The glaciers retreated to the north leaving behind lakes and valleys. Not many manufacturers were in operation during that time. Not many automobiles were being driven. What was the cause of the warming? Is it possible that cycles of the sun might be the cause of warming? It happens every summer.

The EPA has now called the air that humans exhale a dangerous greenhouse gas that needs to be regulated. This is the same “gas” that trees use to produce life-giving oxygen. The politicians have ignored the report, last week from the Energy Department, that carbon-dioxide output fell by 2.8 percent last year. The real purpose of all of this new government regulation is about taxes and control of the American people. They want to tell us what kind of light bulb to use, what kind of food to eat and what kind of car to drive. When we as citizens lose our ability to make personal choices, we lose some of our freedom. The only global warming is the hot air coming from Washington D.C.

Denny Caldwell

Seneca

If our politicians only had the common sense Denny Caldwell of Seneca, SC espouses in this letter to the editor of the Daily Journal newspaper, they would realize that they cannot control the weather with taxes and regulations.