The Gazette recently published a guest column by Amy Ridenour of the National Center for Public Policy Research (“Candidates realize most voters view it as a canard,” Nov. 18).

She blasted those who believe climate change is real and that the burning of fossil fuels contributes to global warming. She states that “global warming isn’t happening” and that the world isn’t getting warmer.

In reality, however, global warming is causing dramatic changes worldwide.

Sea levels are rising, temperatures are rising, the Arctic Ocean will likely be ice-free by midcentury, and tens of millions of acres of forests in North America are being destroyed by beetles that now survive our warmer winters.

Climate change is causing more extreme weather events, the melting of glaciers worldwide, desertification in numerous areas and increasingly acidic oceans as they absorb more and more of the carbon we’re pumping into the atmosphere.

For countless millennia, Earth has had an atmosphere holding no more than 295 parts per million of carbon dioxide, providing us with a planet hospitable to humans.

But with billions of tons of carbon dioxide now being added to our air through the burning of fossil fuels, that figure is now 395 parts per million and climbing. We’re performing a gigantic chemistry experiment, and we’re the guinea pigs.

So why is Ridenour saying, “Good riddance to global warming?” You’ll be shocked — shocked! — to discover that her organization gets a nice chunk of its funding from organizations such as ExxonMobil.

Frank Olsen

Cedar Rapids