Letter: No scientists are citing single storms as proof climate is changing

By Letter to the Editor on December 14, 2022.

Dear editor,

Dr. Daniel Schnee’s column “Climate reparations” in the Dec. 7 News is misleading readers about the work of climate scientists.

Dr. Schnee says “no sane scientist can look at a single storm and infer that the climate is changing,” and he is right: no sane scientist would do that, but Schnee’s statement misleads readers to believe that scientists are doing that.

Climate scientists are basing their conclusions about global warming on data going back decades, even millennia. They know as well as anyone else that a single storm proves nothing. By misleading readers about the work of climate scientists, Dr. Schnee is undermining work that may be crucial to the the survival of life on this planet.

Ironically, Dr. Schnee tries to build up his own credibility by citing his experience in a single typhoon. I believe Dr. Schnee would be the last person to say that because he survived one typhoon, that he is an expert on all typhoons. Dr. Schnee is right when he says that developed nations paying reparations to developing countries to repair damage caused by climate change is not the way to address the problem. As humans we must continue to lend assistance to others harmed by weather-caused disasters, but not, as Dr. Schnee puts it, as “fines” for causing the weather. Climate change and its effects on human life on Earth is a complicated problem.

Misleading readers about the work that scientists are doing to study the problem, and to find solutions for it, is not helping.

Michael Seitz

Medicine Hat

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