Global Warming

A man wrote a letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star today and advised that the Earth has been through many cooling and warming cycles in its history and that he feels that we are simply in a warming cycle and that man's activities have had nothing to do with that warming.    I keep hearing this argument from average, everyday people who act like they are in the know because they remember their 7th grade science classes.   Yes, we all know that the Earth has been through cooling and warming cycles.   How do we know that?    Because that is the consensus opinion of science.   The letter writer accepts the consensus opinion of science that the Earth has been through cooling and warming cycles but questions the current consensus opinion of science to the effect that the Earth is drastically warming because of an excess of CO2 in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels.   People, there is no legitimate scientific controversy about global warming and its causes.   The only people who really question the science are on the payroll of the energy companies who have a vested interest in continuing to sell coal and oil.   I am really afraid that we have waited too long to do much about global warming and that we are going to just have to accept the consequences of our foolhardy disregard of the longstanding warnings from the scientific community about global warming.   It's easy to see that weather patterns are already becoming more and more disrupted.   How many hurricanes and tornadoes is it going to take to convince these people?  You can find photos of Greenland melting for Pete's sake.   If we don't push through the objections of the skeptical, we are going to have some very difficult conditions to deal with in the coming years.   The Republicans, the principal organized skeptics, seem very concerned about not leaving our grandchildren with a massive federal debt.   I think we should be more concerned about leaving our grandchildren with an inhabitable planet.