Climate sceptics are in denial

THE Irish Examiner, along with the rest of the media, has given considerable publicity to climate change sceptics, presumably in the interest of ‘balance’ and to generate controversy.

Frighteningly, many people seem to be in a state of denial. Briefly, it is as simple as this: the greenhouse effect occurs when short wavelength radiation is re-emitted at longer wavelengths (heat) after it strikes the atoms of certain gases such as carbon dioxide. This is a scientific fact, proven experimentally. It is also a fact that CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere has increased by about 50% as a result of burning of fossil fuels.

Therefore a heating of the earth’s atmosphere is to be expected.