POV
I was saddened to read your POV column in
the January issue of Marin Magazine. While
the issue of climate change and man-made
greenhouse gases is complex and difficult, is
clearly an important issue and this essay has
serious flaws that do not help bring clarity. At
the very beginning of the interview, within
three sentences Lindqvist acknowledges the
measurement of CO2 increase, then describes
it as “probably not measurable.” A glance
at the graphs of CO2 amounts over time
shows a clearly measurable and large upward
trend. Later he points out that sea level rise
has been a steady 2 millimeters per year near
San Francisco for the last 155 years, which is
correct. But sea level rise is a lagging indicator
because sea level rises after the atmosphere
warms and ice melts. Lindqvist ignores
leading indicators, such as average global
temperature (which has been dramatically
rising over the last 50 years) and the recently
observed anomalous summer melting of the
polar ice cap. This is the behavior of someone
who chooses evidence that reinforces his preconceptions. Lindqvist’s statements do not
give me any confidence at all that his opinions
are based on a comprehensive understanding
of actual evidence. S TEVE BRYSON, VIA EMAIL
I note Jim Wood’s editorial regarding
climate change. Upon reading it, my first
impulse was to encourage you to inform
yourself more deeply on this issue, if for no
other reason than that Bay Area governments are taking global warming and sea
level rise quite seriously. Without getting
into detailed critiques of Lindqvist’s poorly
informed arguments, please let me suggest
that you do some more research. If you do
so, I think you’ll agree that there’s far more
to this issue than Mr. Lindqvist has taken
into account. DAN DRASIN, GREENBRAE
I Like It
I just want to thank you for your monthly
editorials (POV), both for their breadth of
topic (from local issues to worldwide ones like
global warming) and for their balanced point
of view. I appreciate that you seem to be genuinely interested in and concerned about the
topics you address, and that you are sincerely
open to learning the facts and changing your
