I concede that global warming is fact. However, there are serious questions about how much global warming is actually caused by man and if any of the costly efforts to change the inevitable will have any impact.

Most of the so-called scientific proof that global warming is caused by man comes from liberal scientists, working in liberal universities, depending on grants from a liberal Congress for funding. These scientists will provide any type of proof requested to keep their grant money flowing.

The earth has gone through warming and cooling cycles ever since it was formed out of cosmic dust billions of years ago. There is scientific proof that the Arctic caps began shrinking long before fossil fuels were in use. Major glaciers have been in retreat for hundreds of years.

One volcano can produce more carbon and sulfur dioxides in a month than all the fossil fuel-powered cars, trucks, airplanes and power-generating plants produce in a decade. Don’t believe me? Do the research!

Without the use of fossil fuels, including wood, which allowed the caveman to harness fire, allowing him/her to begin building the modern world, mankind would still be scavenging for food on the savanna. The lifespan of those living in developed societies has increased from 45 years to over 80 years in a span of just over 120 years, primarily because of fossil fuels.

Currently solar and wind power require massive government subsidies and very high energy fees to be profitable. If wind and solar are not profitable no one will invest in the infrastructure to make renewables feasible.

Consider the unintended consequence of a transition to electric cars. Electric cars pay no gas taxes, which means the funds needed to maintain our roads will drop dramatically. Realize the electricity powering electric cars must come from somewhere, primarily fossil fuels. America’s power plants and power grid are not designed to handle the additional load that will be created if everyone were to switch to electric cars.

Perhaps a gradual transition to renewables over the next 50 years is plausible, but the goal of 10 years will never happen no matter who is elected.

America will be burning fossil fuels for decades to come. The world is far from ready to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

The claim that the world as we know it will end unless we eliminate fossil fuels is one of the most naive, ignorant statements ever made. America is doing far more to reduce emissions than all the countries that signed the Paris Accord. However, that is not enough. The current group of liberal presidential candidates are proposing America commit economic suicide by eliminating the use of all fossil fuels.

Global warming and cooling runs in cycles that mankind cannot stop or change. We should instead focus our efforts on the inevitable raise of sea levels, which over the next several hundred years could inundate almost every coastal city in the world.

Don Sorensen

Albert Lea