Your questions are inapposite. You can’t argue with the facts, they are indisputable. As Mr. Romm explained in the cited article “The cold facts about climate change”, opinion is irrelevant on this issue: “What matters is scientific findings -- data, not opinions.” What the data shows is that the polar icecaps are melting as evidenced by satellite imagery and the decrease in mass verified by scientific measurements in situ. There is nothing more to see but the consequences; which if something is not done, and soon, will be visited upon us sooner than later.

As to the latter, it is known that climate change occurs naturally over many thousands of years as evidenced by core samples of the earth’s surface. However, what we are seeing now is abrupt climate change; which the evidence links to the growth of the earth’s human population and activities over the past 250 years, and, most dramatically, in the last half century. What we know is that there is only a thin layer of ozone that shields the earth from the sun’s rays; and that it is being depleted by industrial emissions into the atmosphere resulting in the rise of the ocean temperature; and of the ocean currents that generates the earth’s climate conditions. Just a small change in ocean temperature will affect the thermohaline conveyor leading to more harsh winter weather, reduced soil moisture and more intense winds in regions that provide the significant portion of the world’s food production, and cause a dramatic decrease in the human carrying capacity of the earth’s environment.

What is needed is to restore the natural balance. The forces of nature are out of balance; and it only takes a very small change to produce big consequences. What nature is telling us is that we must stop polluting the atmosphere to allow the earth to heal itself, or face catastrophic consequences. It is time for us to face the facts. It is not the earth that is delicate - it is life on earth. If mankind is to survive, then it is time to stop quibbling and resolve to change our ways.