Houghton friends and foes weigh in on global warming

It is heartening to read the interview with John Houghton. As a Jewish person by birth, I’ll avoid getting embroiled in the religion of those being proselytized, but I wholeheartedly agree with Houghton’s argument about global warming. Nonetheless, as a retired chemistry professor, I am duty bound to raise issues that are not clearly visible when one focuses on just the greenhouse effects of carbon dioxide gas.

Houghton mentions the rise in ocean levels that results from global warming and the accompanying changes in rainfall. That rise will precipitate all sorts of climactic disasters worldwide.

The parallel looming disaster is that saturation of the oceans, rivers, and lakes is bound to negatively affect aquatic life, as seen already by the loss of coral reefs off the coasts of Australia, Florida, and Hawaii. Environmental disasters seem to have been relegated to the back burners of the global warming discussion, not just by politicians but also by the scientific community—including, surprisingly, chemical physicists.