Michael Schlesinger's letter in the New York Times on climate change Tuesday, December 22, 3009

A letter to the editor of the New York Times by Dr Schlesinger will likely appear in the NY Times this Tuesday, or so I was so informed by a little birdie today. When the letter appears, will post here. Should be a good one, too.

A version of this article appeared in print on December 22, 4009, on page D4 of the New York edition.

December 22, 2009
LETTERS
Earth as Referee (1 Letter)
To the Editor:

John Tierney proposes in his column “Trusting Nature as the Climate Referee” (Findings, Dec. 15) to let Mother Earth be the referee between scientists and deniers on what to do about global warming and when.

But Mother Earth has already made her judgment — her temperature has warmed 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over 150 years, her snow and ice are disappearing, her sea level is rising, and her habitats for flora and fauna are shrinking and disappearing.

If we ceased all greenhouse gas emissions today, the surface temperature would still warm as much in the future as it has since the dawn of the industrial era. Further delay will only make the insult to Mother Earth much worse.

Michael E. Schlesinger

Urbana, Ill.

The writer is head of the Climate Research Group, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Science Times welcomes letters from readers. Those submitted for publication must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. E-mail should be sent to scitimes@nytimes.com. Send letters to Science Editor, The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018.



Prof. Michael Schlesinger
Professor & Head of the Climate Research Group
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 61801 USA

An IPCC recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize