Climate change
Dear editor,
Long ago I got a college degree in psychology, a few years later I got a graduate degree in biology. A very interesting thing about human psychology is the difficulty we have in facing facts. The crucial fact of our time is that globally temperatures are rising due to CO2 emissions, largely from “oil, gas, and coal.” Robert S. Windhorst attacks those who are trying to address the problem. To my mind, the Energy Transition Act is loaded with political compromises due to the fact that New Mexico still depends on revenue from fossil fuels. While complaining about the “drumbeat of doom and gloom” he chooses not to mention our state’s enormous potential for solar energy, some of which is already being produced locally. It may seem off to call attention to “warming” during the chill of winter but, as an amateur climatologist paying attention to bits of climate news, I see a connection between the melting artic sea ice and blasts of cold air on northern continents. The oceans absorb 90 percent of the solar energy absorbed by the Earth. That means that oceans, distributing heat, largely determine weather patterns. Lots of artic sea ice makes a big change in the amount of ocean surface exposed to the atmosphere. That must have big impacts on weather, now and in the near future!
Dale L. Berry
Grants, N.M.