Letter in reference to Jan. 2 Eagle News  article “Going to the beach in January” by Iman Zekri

Dear Editor:

It is a mistake for Iman Zekri to make a link between extreme weather and global warming.

This is one of the few areas of agreement between the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).

In 2012, the IPCC asserted that a relationship between global warming and wildfires, rainfall, storms, hurricanes and other extreme weather events has not been demonstrated.

In 2013, the NIPCC concluded the same, saying, “In no case has a convincing relationship been established between warming over the past 100 years and increases in any of these extreme events.”

The National Climate Data Center reveals that extreme weather state records for Florida are spread throughout the past century, with no recent increase.

Here are some of the records:

Maximum Temperature: 109 F, 1931

Minimum Temperature: – 2 F, 1899

Maximum 24-Hour Precipitation: 23 in., 1980

Maximum 24-hour Snowfall: 4 in., 1954

Maximum Snow Depth: 4 in., 1954

Yet, on the false premise that there has been a supposed increase in extreme weather events caused by global warming, President Obama wants to end America’s use of coal, your country’s least expensive and more plentiful power source. Florida gets 21 percent of its electricity from coal. In fact, Florida families living below the poverty line spend 68 percent of their income on energy. It is worrisome for us here in Canada, and indeed across the free world, when our primary defender is bent on crippling itself in this way.

Sincerely,

Tom Harris, B. Eng., M. Eng. (Mech.)

Executive Director

International Climate Science Coalition (ICSC)