Mailbag

Energy hogs

I was glad to see the two articles on the issue of global warming. For sure, the policies of advocates for global warming hysteria harm the poor and keep them in poverty. I have always liked Bjorn Lomborg, having read three of his books. What impresses me is that he started out as a radical environmentalist, was challenged to examine the data by Julian Simon, and realized that hardly any of those environmental issues are as bad as they say.

Your readers should be encouraged to look at the data, especially when the majority of people in the United States have been led to believe that global warming is very serious, and that governments must act now to save the world. I read numerous hysterical ­articles in the scientific literature on all the harms of global warming, but they are almost all exaggerated.

Examining the data, your readers would find that the climate models exaggerate the heating with a doubling of carbon dioxide, there has been no increase in severe storms, more than 10 times as many people die of the cold than the heat, and there are natural ­processes of climate change that statistically are about half the global warming since the late 1800s. Moreover, advocates commonly point out severe weather events as evidence of climate change. Weather and climate are different.

The question comes up of why so many scientists are into climate hysteria. I just read the provocative book, Unsettled, by Steven E. Koonin, former undersecretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Obama administration. A long quote from page 192 says it all: “I know from experience that such ­institutional pressures are real; whether you’re working for the government, a corporation, or an NGO, there is a ­message to be adhered to. For academics, there is pressure to generate press and to secure funding through grants. There’s also the matter of promotion and tenure. And there is peer pressure; more than a few climate contrarians have suffered public opprobrium and diminished career prospects for publicizing data that doesn’t support the ‘broken climate’ meme.”
     Michael J. Oard / M.S. Atmospheric Science / Bozeman, Mont.

How ironic that efforts to mitigate future climate change are resulting in present-day climate and agricultural disaster in Africa through the process of deforestation. I worked at a rural hospital in Eastern Africa in the 1980s and took advantage of green energy projects like solar hot water, freezer, and lighting; biogas for cooking; and a windmill-­driven well. (The hospital still required a petro generator for high-wattage equipment.) With the green technology, though, when the time came for replacement parts and repair expertise, the original donors had often moved on to newer glamour projects. Even if they’d been able to do the upkeep, the green technologies still fall well short of the dependable, large-scale energy available with coal and petro.
     Mike Carlson / Weeki Wachee, Fla.

I was very pleased to see “What is net zero,” “Energy hogs,” and “Bad investment,” which point out the adverse effects of policies by the WEF, the IPCC, and other organizations on the poor and how the effects of “climate change” are exaggerated. I hope many people read them. But why not tell the whole story, i.e., that the “climate change” predictions are a hoax? It would not take much research to prove, for instance, that Mann’s “Hockey Stick” graph is fraudulent.
     John T. Bigham / Oakland, Tenn.

What is Net Zero?

“What is net zero?” starts off with helpful contextual information about “carbon sinks” like forests or oceans. Not many people are aware—my healthy cynicism suspects powerful actors do not want us to be aware—that healthy, moist soil is also a significant carbon sink. If “regenerative farming” methods are embraced by Congress and the Ag lobby (or, probably, in spite of the Ag lobby), the additional carbon sinks would bring the USA back to net zero.
     Douglas Alexander / Madison, Wis.

Drawn to darkness

Just read “Drawn to darkness,” and then read it again. The cure will never be parental controls (although they are good in their own way), or even government regulations limiting content. It seems there is a missing ingredient here that will always play the most important role in every crisis: Where is the dad?
     Shawn Davison / North Manchester, Ind.

I was upset and disappointed in WORLD when my 11-year-old told me he had read an article that troubled and concerned him—“Drawn to darkness.” The article should have had a content warning as it shared very disturbing and graphic words that left vivid and dis­quieting images in my mind—let alone my young son’s mind!
     Katharine Yoder / Crystal, Minn.

Security scare

I wonder about the subhead saying that experts claimed refugees were inadequately vetted. As a volunteer in Knoxville, Tenn., a City of Refuge since 1982, I have been told that refugees have been through several layers of vetting before they come here. Are the “experts” disputing this, or is the problem with the use of the term “refugees” as a catch-all for various categories of people who come here (asylee, migrant, Special Immigrant Visa holder)? Also, I’ve been told that many who come here without birth certificates are assigned the birth date of Jan. 1, so it is not surprising that thousands of applications use that date. Let’s be careful about what we allow to scare us about security.
     Kathryn Hendrix / Knoxville, Tenn.

Redeeming the silver screen

Great article. My son Michael will be graduating from Biola this spring as a choreographer. His dad talked with Halleen numerous times while visiting and was very impressed with him.
     Richard Piehl / Whitewater, Wis.

Put your behind in your past

The columns from Lynn Vincent and Janie B. Cheaney seem to interleave in a conspiracy, timely and prophetic. I have been fasting lately, asking God for revelation for how to trust Him in this season of life where there’s more and more room for my behind to fit into my past (I’m 62). Mostly, I have been viewing my past as a dusty attic of heart-piercing longings that I just don’t want to face. You say God makes my story in some significant place a transition in the larger story I can’t see. That’s such a redemptive thought.
     Pat Wahl / Chippewa Falls, Wis.

The expressive lines of Albrect Dürer

I have been thoroughly enjoying the Masterworks articles. I look forward to them every issue. I connected in a deep way with the article featuring Albrect Dürer’s work titled Knight, Death, and the Devil. The detail is incredible. But what drew me in was the imagery of the knight going home after battling our greatest adversary the devil, and extinguishing any fear of death. Although Christ won the ultimate battle, we are in the fray here on earth, and I look forward to going home too! One characteristic of the sketch that was not mentioned but stood out to me was that he is headed toward the light. So are we if we are in Christ.
     Kevin Lantaff / Commerce City, Colo.

Who really owns your house?

Andrée Seu Peterson is my favorite WORLD columnist, but this column was sadly a compendium of misstatements, misunderstandings, and misrepresentations that displayed a lack of understanding of property values, property taxation, and local government debt. Her wild allegations included whoppers such as schools are “strip-­mining your hard-earned equity,” bonds are IOUs to homeowners, and such bonds “are in fact never paid back.”

Property taxes support far more than just schools. In Ohio and most (if not all) other states, police, fire, roads, and most local government functions are heavily reliant on property taxes. Getting rid of property taxation would create a local government funding crisis for which no one has come up with a viable solution. Mrs. Peterson should redirect her ire to the costs of local government. Collective bargaining and defined benefit pension plans are the two biggest drivers of the higher taxes that she loathes.
     Paul Rutter / Granville, Ohio

I could easily add another 800 words on looting the elderly of the homes they worked for and invested in for 50 years or more. It bothered me when I saw it happening to my elderly neighbors before I joined their ranks. All property taxes on owner-occupied homes should be frozen when the owner reaches 65 years of age, regardless of their income.
     Kurt Mach / Gig Harbor, Wash.

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