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Letter writer Marilyn Chapman fears that we have only five years to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions else “global warming will spiral out of control” (“Global warming threat is real and urgent”, April 3). Perhaps I can help calm Marilyn’s fears by offering her a few facts.

According to the UK Met Office, one of the major repositories of global temperature records, the global temperature database shows that there has been no global warming for the past 15 years in spite of increasing atmospheric CO2. Recently, the Norwegian Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, an agency that monitors Arctic ice conditions, has reported that Arctic ice extent was above normal for this time of year.

Ms. Chapman specifically mentions the need for a “stable climate” to ensure the annual success of food crops. Yes, this past winter was indeed abnormally mild. But, at the same time, Europe suffered under brutal cold and snow. Every study of the cause of recent extreme weather events have found no connection whatsoever to CO2 emissions. For example, a recent peer-reviewed paper reported that the 2010 Russian heat wave was solely due to natural causes. Both tornado activity and hurricane activity are at their lowest levels in decades.
But if Ms. Chapman is worried about food crop success, she ought to be more concerned about falling temperatures than about global warming. Solar activity is continuing on a path toward its lowest peak in decades. Based on historical data, more and more climate scientists see this as a harbinger of 30 years or more of declining global temperatures. 2012 data show we are already on our way.

F. E. Slojkowski
MORRIS PLAINS