Since the COP1 in 1995, the world has been shuffling toward a unified response to soaring CO2. We’ve watched CO2 change from a mean of 250ppm [parts per million] to 363ppm in 1995 and now 409ppm in 2017. The COP process, 22 years after it started, almost reached world unity, due mostly to planetwide, personal observations in 195 countries.

A world-shattering, stunning consensus, only Syria and little America rejected the scientific need for unified response. NASA studies show we are higher in greenhouse gasses now than the Earth has seen in the past 800,000 years. Temperature is soaring globally. That includes the insidious effects of methane, with its much stronger greenhouse effect.

Flake news tries to take us back to a time, previous to dinosaurs, to show how low CO2 is now and how silly it is for us to worry about rising temperatures and seas. At 500ppm the CO2 in a recreation center needs to be lowered, because cognitive function reduces and we hurt ourselves.

Republicans have shown incredible ignorance in dealing with this worldwide problem. If the temperature and CO2 /methane rise continues or accelerates as it has been doing, the seas will rise 10 feet. That makes Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s order to all the people in Florida state government, banning the use of the words, “Global Warming” and “Climate Change” a world-class dumb move. Just like Trump’s. But Bannon does it for pure mayhem.

John Hoffmann

Carbondale