James Hollingsworth's My Turn of the 24th defending Cliff Harris and discrediting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a typically uneducated attack on the human caused view of Global Warming. Hollingsworth claims that Harris has never denied that Earth was warming on a planetary scale. I draw Hollingsworth's attention to Mr. Harris' columns of 2009 and following, which I repeatedly criticized. This can be checked in the Press' archives. In fact, Mr. Harris is on record as predicting an imminent Ice Age.

Mr. Hollingsworth claims that warmer water contains less CO2 than cooler water but the fact is that the oceans are more acidic from Carbon Dioxide than at any time since the evolution of shellfish. In fact, oceanic acidification has increased by some 30 percent in the last fifty years. This resulted in shellfish literally having their shells dissolved around them. Far from Hollingsworth's contention the CO2 is being released from warmer water increased atmospheric Carbon Dioxide is acidifying the oceans.

Mr. Hollingsworth then claims that all heating comes from the sun. This is both wrong - heating also comes from the breakdown of radioactive elements in the Earth's crust - but also ignores that the burning of fossil fuels liberates solar energy of millions of years ago. Burning coal and oil releases the energy that the plants and animals of ancient times gathered from the sun.

Anthony Watts is a proponent of the view that weather stations are affected by the "urban heat sink" effect. Research has disproved this. Mark Z. Jacobsen of Stanford University found that, at most, 4 percent of Global Warming effects can be attributed to urban heat islands. Shooting down Watts' contention that Global Warming is an artifact of the measuring stations.

Mr. Hollingsworth makes the point that CO2 isn't a pollutant. He points out that plant nurseries often use Carbon Dioxide to help plants grow. That's true as far as it goes. Think of it like water, a glass is refreshing 20 feet of it and you drown.

History does not show that CO2 has not been much higher than it is now. Camels lived in the high Arctic and sea levels were at least 30 feet higher than they are now when Carbon Dioxide levels were this high. The few humans had yet to discover the recording of history.

Mr. Hollingsworth's solution to global warming is more energy use. In particular, air conditioning. This ignores the Laws of Thermodynamics. Creating energy inevitably leads to increased temperatures. An air conditioning unit does not create cold, it shifts heat to the outside and cools the inside. But, and this is crucial, always some energy is lost to the environment. The net result is more warming.

Contrary to Mr. Hollingsworth's gloomy prediction that if we're going back to chipping flint and wearing hides if we give up fossil fuels we can switch to passive energy production systems. These include solar, wind, tidal: the list goes on.

In sum, Mr. Hollingsworth is quite right: global warming is real; we do need to learn to adapt to it; and when people do poor research it should be replaced by valid research. But he's wrong in that the IPCC is a sinister plot to control our lives. Only through international cooperation can we prevent the United States from losing the entire seacoast below thirty feet elevation and only through international cooperation can we prevent mass population shifts leading to starvation, plagues, and warfare. The choice is ours.

Jeff Bourget is a Coeur d'Alene resident.