George,

The planet Venus, our "sister planet" has a surface temperature of some 860 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists agree it was once a planet with oceans, but now has an extremely dry, desert-like surface--the heat caused by trapped gases remains almost constant night and day..

The atmosphere above the surface is, with a minute quantity of nitrogen, largely carbon dioxide (CO2). Venus is regarded by astronomers as a perfect example of the "greenhouse effect."

By all indications, planet Earth has had an enormous increase in the quantity of carbon dioxide in the past two hundred years--any graph shows a fairly constant level of CO2 up until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution when the line on the graph begins to elevate rapidly ... interestingly, the average temperature of the planet begins to slowly rise in concert with the rise in atmospheric CO2.

The fact that CO2 is capable of absorbing the sun's heat and not releasing it back into the atmosphere is indisputable.

Also indisputable, is the average temperature of Earth is rising. No credible scientist argues this point.

Recently, I had a visit from an astronomer friend who does research on sea levels utilizing Doppler radar bouncing an electronic beam from an orbiting satellite to the ocean surface. He said so rapidly are ocean levels rising, they revise their predictions monthly! He indicated there is a multiplier effect because as more sea ice melts there is less reflection of the sun's rays and the seawater is able to absorb more heat and as the perma frost melts, organic material decays releasing methane and carbon dioxide--burning and clear cutting rainforest areas, also add to the green house gasses. Politicians, predominantly from the right, along with a small group of scientists--many of whom are paid consultants for companies benefiting from the status quo--call the idea of man-made global warming a hoax. Senator Inhofe has made several speeches on the floor of the senate expressing just these thoughts.

Again, I refer to my astronomer friend, he agrees there are natural changes effecting temperature, most of which, historically lead to a cooling of the earth. He cites mammoth volcanic eruptions followed by a globe encircling cloud cover of ash as one example, the "wobble" of the earth at the poles, as another. He goes on to say that most of earth's temperature changes are gradual, taking thousands of years to have a profound effect.

This is not the case with the changes we are experiencing now, CO2 levels are increasing rapidly and the burning of fossil fuels is the main culprit. The ability to convert CO2 to other harmless gasses by plants and the oceans of the world has simply overwhelmed their capacity. The result is more and more trapped CO2 gas the principle cause of global warming.

Again, using the planet Venus as an example, it doesn't take a quantum leap of knowledge to recognize the cause and effect of the "green house" gas CO2, . Why would it be different on the planet Earth?

Not using "junk science" as many of the doubters employ, nations of the Earth must unite to avoid a disaster of biblical proportion

Harry Tenney (Electronic mail, May 26, 2010)