Re: Bicycles, trucks, trains

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

At 10:43 AM -0700 9/16/99, Richard Tarara wrote:

> Clearly Leigh has little respect or belief in global energy problems (and he
> has certainly railed against the notion of global warming) so it would be of
> little use to suggest that the finite and politically fragile nature of
> fossil fuel supplies and the strong possibility that the (non-existent)
> global warming may trigger a freeze on the use of such fuels might well
> produce another 'energy crisis' in the foreseeable future--along with a
> whole new set of 'silly' solutions.  ;-)

Rick has grossly misrepresented me here. I have never "railed against
the notion of global warming". In point of fact I told my astronomy
students just yesterday* that there is scientific consensus that the
Earth has warmed over the last century by a half degree Celsius, plus
or minus a half degree or so. I hope any readers who have joined the
group since that discussion will recognize the nature of his claim.

I will not characterize Rick's attack on me here, nor will I bother
to discuss the real issues with him. It would be pointless to do so.

Leigh

*This was in response to a question about the relative severity of
winters and summers in the northern and southern hemispheres of
Earth. I wanted to emphasize the fact that it was more difficult to
determine the global temperature history of Earth than it is to
determine the global temperature history of Mars.