I read an opinion in a recent issue that simply cannot go without a response. The commentary entitled “Keeping our nation rich with water” opens its remarks ridiculing those without a compulsion to jump on the “Global Warming” bandwagon at all costs. The writer fails to address many specifics from those who allegedly don’t “believe in global warming” and casts ridicule to those who “don’t believe,” questioning if “we are living on the same planet”.

I will answer the query with a simple “Yes,” we are living on the same planet. This is the same planet that has been having wildfires (formerly known as “Forest Fires”) all of my 70-plus years of existence on this planet.

In fact, Smokey the Bear used to teach us all during Saturday morning cartoons, that “Only YOU can prevent Forest Fires.” Perhaps the name has been changed to “wildfires” to distance their occurrence from things that have been happening for centuries.

There is no doubt among “non-believers” that the climate is changing. It always has and it always will.

What is in question is the specific causes of the changing climate. There are those who believe the ever changing climate is now caused primarily by human activity and are perfectly willing to risk total economic and social collapse in an attempt to stop it.

Some, in the same writing, point to a single television network as broadcasting false narratives while pointing to another television network as if they were spewing the gospel. While The Weather Channel constantly broadcasts whatever destruction they can find, we cannot lose sight of the fact that it is their business.

Nobody is going to tune in to The Weather Channel to hear how nice and comfortable it is all over the Earth. There is an inherent bias in The Weather Channel’s reporting. And, through our wonderful advancements in technology, there are cameras and broadcasts from all over the world at all times of the day, rendering virtually every catastrophe to be witnessed by the world. Such prominence is likely to make some believe that the frequency of catastrophic events is increasing dramatically even if it is not.

One of the more prominent local newscasters of my time, Irv Weinstein, created the model for successful broadcasts by assuring that films of fires and gruesome accidents were a mainstay of every broadcast. Such was the formula for “Eyewitness News.”

The Weather Channel is no different and will eagerly jump on board to cover any emerging weather, putting its own reporters in harm’s way to do so. For us Climate Change deniers, we tend to look more at the source of our “news” and determine what biases could be influencing what is being presented as fact.

In Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” the scary global warming documentary that really gave the global warming advocates momentum, there were many predictions that simply have not come true. Polar bears are not extinct, in fact, they’re increasing in numbers.

Sea levels have not risen significantly and Florida is not submerged. While there are reports that claim the Earth’s temperature has increased, the sources of the data contained in many of the reports is suspect. Let us not forget that the National Weather Service in Buffalo in the 1960s moved its data collection center from downtown Buffalo to The Buffalo airport, some 12 miles inland from Lake Erie.

Weather centers all over the country have moved over time, severely limiting the reliability of any comparisons to the past. Now, climate alarmists point to global temperature measurements that NASA seems to be able to monitor but these measurements are relatively new and the measurements are theoretical at best, relying on computer analysis and algorithms that are far too complex for widespread understanding.

“Keeping our nation rich with water” makes a vague presentation to a necessity for “water collection devices” that simply pull water out of the air. First off, there are such devices. They are called dehumidifiers and many of us have them to rid our basements of moisture and musty odors. It is not a new technology but more importantly, what the writer proposes is a massive altering of the Earth’s humidity. Now if there were anything that man could do to unintentionally alter global climates, it would be to foster global initiatives to alter the Earth’s humidity. How novel that such a concept be suggested in the same commentary with concerns over climate change!

In the early ’90s, when rebuttals to Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth were not as widely censored as they are today, there was a ranking that was published that placed the top cause of global warming as the sun was getting hotter. The second cause was the Earth is closer to the Sun. In the rankings, human activity didn’t come in until the number seven or eight slot. There are many valid reasons for those of us referred to as Climate Change “deniers” that do not make the suggestion that we are mentally ill as the previous writer alleges. Some specifically are:

— A few years after Gore’s documentary, the Earth entered a cooling period. Rather than to accept the inaccuracies of the fears over “Global Warming,” the term was modified to “Climate Change” incorporating cooler weather as a consequence of Global Warming! Such a modification reeks of ulterior motive and sought only to continue irrational fear mongering.

— Many people are getting extremely wealthy over the fears of “Climate Change” and the easiest way to find truth in anything is to follow the money. Gore’s elaborate scheme of trading “Carbon Credits” would put him in the forefront of every climate initiative, making him extremely wealthy collecting commissions on all traded “Carbon Credits.” Proposing such a scheme reduces his credibility to zero.

— Companies now are tripping over each other trying to put up the so-called “Green” renewable energy farms. They do it in the name of saving the environment. At the same time they’re building the wind and solar farms, they use more fossil fuels through the manufacturing, transportation, construction and maintenance of these farms than would have been spent directly burning the “fossil fuels” for the energy they produce. Meanwhile, they’ll cut down trees and tear up vegetation and green space that would have converted CO2 to Oxygen in favor of planting Plastic, Fiberglass, and Concrete. If not for the Government subsidies and tax advantages, these projects would never start.

Yes, there are plenty of rational reasons to deny that man is a primary cause of our changing climate. There are plenty more reasons to be skeptical of supposed solutions. But above all, as a Climate Change Cause denier, my favorite questions are: “If humans truly could alter the climate of the Earth, what is the correct climate?” And, “Who decides?”

Jerome Maras is a Dunkirk resident.