LETTERS: GLOBAL WARMING: GOVERNMENT ISN'T ANSWER TO STUDIES

To the editor:

In a recent Speak Out comment, one of your callers suggested that studies debunking global warming were obviously biased because they were funded in part or in whole by businesses that had a vested interest in debunking the theory. The caller suggested that only studies conducted by groups that were supported by the government were to be trusted, since the government has no vested interest in the results.

Hogwash! Government is a big business, and it has a considerable amount vested in the outcome of these studies. Additionally, not all of government's interests are geared toward improving our lives, but rather to increasing the power of those who govern. Nearly every government-funded study suggesting the existence of global warming offers the same solutions: more governmental regulation of industry, higher taxes on industry and less freedom for citizens.

Global warming may have many causes, but the government will have a hard time raising our taxes to fight sunspots, volcanic eruptions or cosmic radiation. Additionally, people would be loathe to give up their freedoms for a solution to these causes. Thus, the government, through its scientific allies, must point the finger of blame at the people in order to extract more power over them.

SHAPLEY R. HUNTER

Thebes, Ill.