I believe Jenni Dyar’s heart is in the right place (“Global warming really is a concern,” March 10) but her letter unintentionally reflects the “reality” behind global warming — assumptions and faulty numbers, with suspect rhetoric.

After reading Michael Crichton’s book “State of Fear,” I’ve come to the conclusion that global warming is, at best, a suspect theory that will need a long-term study to verify (30 to 100 years is nothing in the length of the world’s climate). At worst, global warming is a mixture of fixed numbers, yellow journalism and politicized science.

Although Crichton’s book is a work of fiction, it is based on hard scientific facts, complete with bibliography and footnotes.

Dyar wrote about the Kyoto Protocol. Studies have shown it will reduce warming by .04 degrees Celsius by 2100 — that’s if the United States joins.

But what about the melting of Antarctic ice? some global-warming subscribers ask. Isn’t that an obvious sign of global warming no simpleton could ignore? Well, in actuality, despite large chunks of ice breaking off during the past five years, the ice has increased. In western Antarctica, the ice has increased by 26.8 gigatons a year, reversing the melting trend of the past 6,000 years.

I could throw numbers around all day, but I deal in words, like national and global media conglomerates, as well as politicized scientists and lobbyists. Stretching the truth in news is a way to increase sales (see Pulitzer, Hearst and the sinking of the Maine). As for politicized science? Research eugenics, the Tuskegee Experiment and the twisted ideas behind the Holocaust.

Although the idea of global warming doesn’t have the social ramifications of eugenics per se, its permeation into the social conscious cannot be ignored.

I don’t suggest we all run out to buy SUVs and forget about conservation.

It concerns me, however, that the United States is taking flack for .04 degrees Celsius over 100 years and that Third World countries aren’t being allowed a certain degree of industrialization to advance for environmental concerns.

But, just like the computer engineers and animal ecologists, I, too, am out of my league here as an English major.

Charles Ripley

Senior

English