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Article: What to make of the year without a winter.(THE LION'S DEN)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- February 2, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The most exasperating thing about humankind is not, as T.S. Eliot wrote, that we "cannot bear very much reality." It is the corollary: We can bear far too much unreality. I've been reminded of that in this strangely warm winter here on the East Coast as I've seen news stories linking the unseasonably nice weather to human-caused (anthropogenic) global warming.
I do not know for certain whether anthropogenic warming is real, though I looked carefully at it for a book I wrote years ago. Neither do you. And neither do the scientists. Climate change involves many complexities and uncertain comparisons with events over geologic time. The carbon dioxide we generate ...