Man not to blame for warming

In the Yuma Sun on July 9, "G-8 leaders agree on climate target." "Obama agreed ... to a goal of keeping the world's average temperature from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit." It "makes a significant step ... to limit greenhouse gases blamed for the world's rising temperature."

Surprising that the world's industrial leaders would state their goal in Fahrenheit degrees, rather than the worldwide use of Celsius degrees. In the last 150 years, Earth's temperature has risen only about .6 degrees Celsius. At this rate, it would take 450 years to rise 2 degrees Celsius.

And the G-8 leaders blame "rising" temperature on greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. But for the last 100 years, Earth's temperatures have correlated closely with the sun's surface magnetic activity.

In May 2007, Dr. Reid Bryson, founding chairman of the Department of Meteorology, University of Wisconsin, stated, "80 percent of greenhouse gas warming occurs in the first 30 feet from the surface, caused by water vapor," "And carbon dioxide is .001 of that amount."

Graphic evidence shows that global warming began about 1850, but increased worldwide use of hydrocarbon fuels began about 1940. Glacier shortening and sea level rise coincided with the temperature rise.

Just three recent volcanic eruptions - 1883 Indonesia, 1912 Alaska, and 1947 Iceland - spewed more carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide into the air than all of man's industrial activities.

Termites now produce twice as much carbon dioxide (as formic acid, HCOOH) as man's annual industrial activities.

STUART H. JONES
Yuma