Donald Froelich’s letter reminded us of the good old days in the 1950s when the U.S. population was around 150 million and we polluted without a care in the world. Why aren’t we cooler now with our catalytic-converter cars and our gas-heated homes, he asks. Well, I’m no global warming expert, but I’d guess the reason we aren’t cooler might have something to do with the fact that our population has now doubled in size, and we still burn coal, gas and oil to generate most of our electric power. Since we have lots more computers and air conditioners to run than we did back then, I’d guess we are generating a lot more greenhouse gases now. Coupled with the loss of forest acreage worldwide to soak up the CO2, maybe those climate experts (and your thermometer) aren’t so far off.
