If you can't stand the heat . . .

It's very unfortunate that the climate has become such a political football. It does little good to participate in grade-school name-calling. (And yes, even some "greenies" like me drive a Hemi.)

What does matter is whether the amounts of heat received and released from our little planet are, on average, equal. If they are, happiness. If they are not, the Earth is going to get hotter.

But don't be fooled. Just because the Earth gets "hotter" doesn't mean that temperatures will immediately zoom up. As ice melts, it takes in an enormous amount of heat, while its temperature does not change. Our oceans are gigantic heat sinks that are also capable of capturing enormous amounts of thermal energy (heat) from the atmosphere while their temperatures do not dramatically increase.

The important point I'm trying to make is that heat does not immediately equate to an obvious increase in temperature. However, if you don't think the heat is increasing, please take a trip up the road to Glacier National Park and take some photographs of the glaciers. Then compare them with similar shots taken 30 or 40 years ago. What you see should convince you that we are not in a happy state of thermal equilibrium. (I could go on about Greenland and the Arctic sea ice, but those are not so easy to confirm for yourself.)

I'm glad that Cliff Harris at least acknowledges there actually is an imbalance, and that things are heating up. The only thing left to decide is whether or not we have anything to do with it. Whether Cliff agrees or not is immaterial. The same science that makes your car go, your Internet communicate, your medicine work and your aircraft fly has determined that the amount of carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere has increased, and that increase will, and does, trap more heat in the Earth's systems.

You may disagree with the science, but you have a choice. Either do the research and publish your conclusions, or distrust all science and do not rely on any of it. Just because you don't happen to like a particular scientific conclusion, sitting on the sidelines and throwing rocks isn't doing the slightest bit of good.

You cannot both accept the scientific process and simultaneously deny it. In other words, you cannot have your cake and eat it too.

Andrew Barrowman is a Coeur d'Alene resident.