LETTERS: TRUTH RELIES ON FACTS, NOT SUPPORTERS

To the editor:

In his Nov. 27 letter, Stan Crader derided those uninformed people in a world full of information. He then went on to state that the earth's temperature had actually decreased by O.014 degree Celsius over the past 18 years. Perhaps Mr. Crader should heed his own advice. While satellite data did indeed show a decrease, the measurement did not take into account the decay of the satellite's orbit over time. In the outer atmosphere where satellites orbit the earth, the temperature decreases as the satellite falls toward earth. Once the error due to this phenomenon has been corrected, the result confirms a global temperature increase. Furthermore, each of the past 10 months and nine of the last 11 years have been the warmest on record, further bolstering the global-warming theory.

Mr. Crader goes on to state that dealing with this greenhouse effect will result in huge, unnecessary fuel-cost increases. However, researchers are currently developing fuel cells which would use the existing gasoline supply, obviating the need for fuel-cost increases.

The balance of Mr. Crader's letter seems to be devoted to counting how many scientists support or oppose the global-warming concept. His count is suspect, since he includes among the supporters only those who were actually at the Kyoto summit. However, his overall conclusion is even more dubious, since truth is determined by facts, not by the number of people who believe it.

STEPHEN S. SCHADE

Mt. Prospect, Ill.