Opinion column should use scientific backing

Regarding the May 3 editorial “Listing polar bears as endangered is bad for business:”

Polar Bears are the canaries in the mine. Basically the column ridicules science and belittles any ideas to control greenhouse gases in the supposition it will hurt development. It will create jobs.

The writer presents science as an “iffy” proposition. He says, “If manmade greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and ’if’ warming leads to melting of the Arctic ice, and ’if’ that leads to bears being unable to find food... .”

That’s an awful lot of “ifs.” Those “ifs” are his, not science’s. Science says manmade greenhouse gases cause atmospheric warming, which is melting glaciers and causing Arctic ice to melt, which will put polar bears in a very precarious position not to mention what it its going to do to us unless we address the situation.

The editorial quotes the Competitive Enterprise Institute as saying “populations of polar bears worldwide are not only not in peril, but have increased dramatically in the past half century.” This “think tank” he quotes is an organization set up to rebut science and any research that does not meet the ideology of the right wing corporations that fund and control them. There have been studies made by scientists that document the decrease in polar bear numbers and the deteriation in the size and health of others.
We all have to be scientifically informed in this critical matter. 
 
Leon Logan
Tucumcari