Letters to the Editor

Greg Bayes, in his letter in the August 2 edition of The Inlander, stated that about 50 percent of the world's scientists do not believe global warming exists! Bayes then states that the remaining 50 percent believe that global warming is a recurring phenomenon that has been around since the Big Bang! Both of these statements are ABSOLUTELY FALSE.


Just last week, 178 countries broke with the richest and strongest nation (the U.S.) to say that mankind is causing global warming.


And the "vast majority" of about 2,600 climatologists and scientists representing more than 80 countries have contributed to -- and AGREED WITH -- the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC has documented, explained and predicted "disastrous" consequences of global warming. Pulitzer Prize-winner Ross Gelbspan documented in his 1997 book, The Heat Is On, the financial support by fossil fuel organizations of about 10 PhDs who then would write and talk against global warming. Some of those PhDs have since recanted.


Let me just say that there is overwhelming scientific and anecdotal evidence much too extensive to include here that mankind is the dominant contributor to global warming.


The bottom line is that mankind has and is causing global warming, which has already caused extensive weather-related global disasters, and has been predicted to cause "a precipitous decline in global population."


Bayes should stop believing Rush Limbaugh, the true radical.





Julian Powers


Spokane, Wash.





Since the election, I have been trying to understand just what a "Compassionate Conservative" is, and now I think I have figured it out based on the first six months of the Bush presidency.


I guess the term made me a bit wary. Anytime someone goes out of their way to tell me how compassionate they are, I just automatically check my back pocket to see if my wallet is still there. But I thought I would wait and see how the policies of the new administration panned out. Well the results are in, and it's obvious that this is a compassionate administration. The question is: to whom is it most compassionate?


It is evident that Bush has been most compassionate to those who are in the top one percent of the income brackets. They will receive about 40 percent of the tax cut. You will get your $300, and those with million-dollar incomes will get about $50,000 tax breaks. We all know what a needy group they are.


It appears that this will drive us into a budget deficit again, but we can just cut some of those wasteful programs like Medicare or tap into the Social Security trust fund to make up for that negative impact.


Compassion has also been shown to the oil and gas companies, in that, under the Bush energy plan, they will be able to drill in any spot they suspect of having a barrel of oil underneath it. And this will be paid for by the $35 billion in tax incentives to big oil that come out of the taxpayers' pockets. Those poor struggling energy companies really need the money.


It's nice to see that compassion is also being shown to the tobacco companies. Attorney General Ashcroft has really done a marvelous job of restoring goodwill by abandoning the federal suit against them. They should now feel all warm and fuzzy as they market their product here and around the globe. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal on Aug. 2 stated that big tobacco is now in control of Congress because of a massive investment in the form of monetary contributions and because of the new regulators appointed by Bush who act like a wholly-owned subsidiaries of big tobacco. No chance of FDA control over this bunch.


I could go on and talk about the compassion shown to the National Rifle Association by giving it free access to the White House, or the compassion shown to the HMOs and to the drug companies, or the compassion shown to stockbrokers who may get their greedy little hands on your Social Security funds, but I think you get the picture.


But don't worry, none of this will touch any of your lives. This president is too compassionate to let that happen. If this really bothers you, just take two aspirins and a glass of arsenic-laced water and go to bed.





David R. Canterbury


Spokane, Wash.