LETTERS: DISCUSS ISSUES, NOT CONCOCTIONS

To the editor:

Somewhere along the line, the neoconservatives in the right wing of the current Republican Party seem to have become dereailed. To see what I mean, one has only to compare the current conservative movement of this nation with conservative movements before and elsewhere. Only here and now do we find right-wingers such as Jo Ann Emerson lambasting folks in the environmental movement as she identifies her own political party as staunchly anti-environmental. Even Richard Nixon recognized the importance of environmental problems and sought to solve them through regulatory mechanisms. Only here and now do conservatives identify themselves as blindly anti-regulatory even if the regulations are effective and designed directly to protect human health.

Only in the United States do we find right-wing extremists such as Ed Stewart desperately trying to deny the interpretation of 1,500 of the world's leading scientists concerning global warning and doing so with concocted anecdotes and fanciful analogies from some no-name Judge Wanniski. Mr. Stewart really seems to want folks to ignore the evidence and buy into the far-fetched politica platform that demands rejection of scientific evidence. But, before that happens, he'll need to explain the rapid increase in atmospheric carbon from 320 parts per million to 360 during the last three decades. Carbond dioxide, an inevitable product of burning coal, oil and wood, is a primary greenhouse gas. According to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Data Base, of the 6 million tons of carbon released per year from burning fossil fuel, approximately 50 percent comes from the industrialized nations. This is precisely why industrialized nations such as the United States must take the lead in addressing this issue.

I don't know where Mr. Stewart -- or his surrogate, Judge Wanniski -- obtained their values, but I suspect they came from within someone's head. I'd like to see those oppesed to addressing global warming discuss the real issues, not offer us weird concoctions generated from dogmatic beliefs and a political platform that seems to demand rejection of evidence.

ALAN JOURNET

Cape Girardeau