Dear Editor,

Cort Gifford, in your Nov. 30 letter “Truth in Short Supply” regarding climate change, you have given me a glimmer of hope. If, in fact, it is a hoax, I could give up feeling guilt driving my car, or using coal-produced energy, and dump the sorrow of leaving my children with a compromised environment due to the actions of those of us who came before.

But I need more proof from you that will override the reality that 97 percent of climate scientist believe in man-made climate change, which represents thousands of years of combined higher education study. This steep lean is akin to a 200-pound man on one end of a schoolyard seesaw looking up at a six-pound newborn child on the other end.

We have accurate instruments, and reading CO2 in our atmosphere is not hard. Evidently we have a very high volume of CO2 that is indeed affecting our climate and, reading the historical data, proof that it began climbing dramatically about the time we started burning fossil fuels. Cort, help me understand how we are reading these instruments incorrectly. Explain to me why, of almost every country in the world, we are the sole giant climate denier?  Isn’t that like the parent who believes everyone in the parade is out of step except their child?

I want to believe you, Cort; it would make my life better. What are your credentials? What independent, credible sources (not paid by Exxon) do you use? I need more than opinion.

And finally, if I agree with you, what if in the end we are wrong and inadvertently throw the planet under the bus?

Chris White
Sandpoint