Mankind the cause of warming
I write to differ with the views expressed by David W Coley in his letter "Changes to climate in history", September 30. He states that the current climate cycle, commonly referred to now as global warming, has occurred over the past many millions of years, and, after returning to what we regard as normal, will happen again sometime in the future.
Mr Coley's views are the opposite of nearly all scientists over the last decades who have studied climate change. There is a substantial and growing body of evidence that human activities are having a significant effect over and above the natural climate cycle.
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is relentlessly rising from pre-industrial levels of 280 parts per million (ppm). The Government's chief scientific advisor, Professor Sir David King, for example, recently said: "Today we're over 380 ppm. That's higher than we've ever been for over a million years, possibly 30 million years. Mankind is changing the climate."
Robert Saunders, Telford Friends of the Earth, Telford
