What should we do on climate change?

Climate change is real. Most of the negative impact on our climate is manmade. And mankind can and should make changes to reduce the potential harm that climate change brings.

We can all agree on these points.

The Fourth National Climate Assessment was released last week and indeed painted a dismal forecast for the doomsday prediction if something is not done to address this critical issue.

But let's be honest.

The "assessment" paints the worst-case scenario for warming temperatures and rising sea levels.

That does not diminish nor dismiss the findings. But to assume there's not a political bent to the report would be naive.

When you release a disastrous report on warming temperatures on the coldest Thanksgiving in history is a bit of irony, don't you think?

The Trump administration -- actually the President himself -- raises many questions on the findings.

And there is certainly room to question the findings on several levels, although the basic premise is correct.

There are volumes of financial data in the report to illustrate the massive costs associated with doing nothing.

Yet there's nothing in the report to illustrate the high costs of additional regulations that will impact consumers on several levels.

The report is a global assessment but there's scant data on how China and India, for example, are part of the global problem.

The focus is clearly on the United States given our industrialized society.

That's well and good.

The one major takeaway from the report is that there still remains time to adequately address climate change and make adaptations to reduce, if not reverse, negative trends.

And that's where American ingenuity comes into play.

I have enough faith in ourselves that wise minds will learn how to change and adapt our society to address climate change.

It was just 30 short years ago, you may recall, when the scientific community was predicting a new Ice Age.

The President is wrong in his assessment. Climate change is real and it holds the potential for great harm.

But the scientific community needs to embrace faith that Americans have the intellect and skills to modify society to address these needed changes.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.