WARMING: Press still in denial

I am on my annual vacation to North Idaho, just in time for another of the heat waves of the current summer.

Several years ago I wrote a letter to the editor to complain about the denial of global warming that columnist Cliff Harris exhibited in his writings. What has been happening in the ensuing years? The planet has continued to warm. Individual, monthly and yearly record high temperatures continue to be set around the world. Now, Cliff’s successor Randy Mann continues the denial by conspicuously failing to mention the role of global warming in his latest column focused on the unusual number of wildfires plaguing the northern hemisphere this summer.

Climatologists who understand the phenomenon of global warming have long said that these kinds of events, along with record storms and record droughts, would be some of the effects we could expect from global warming. How many more years will it take for Randy (and Cliff) to acknowledge reality (and maybe stop blaming warming oceans on underwater volcanoes and a warming atmosphere on sunspots)?

The planet is warming due to mankind’s use of fossil fuels. This is not a political issue, it is a scientific one and it needs to be addressed immediately by the United States and the rest of the world if we want to leave our children and grandchildren a planet on which they can live and prosper. It starts with acknowledging the source of the problem.

WALTER W. WILSON JR.

Everett, Wash.