In response to Ken Moore’s Jan. 15 letter “Global warming? Don’t worry so much,” I suggest we be very concerned about global warming.

Since Mr. Moore suggests a scientific approach, let’s try one: Serious science is disseminated to the public via peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. To the best of my knowledge, 900 articles have been published about global warming in the last five years. All 900 have concluded that global warming is a serious problem and is human-caused.

Further — contrary to Moore’s assertion that the global climate was warmer in the last century — we have been able to analyze ice cores back through the last 400,000 years. Both global temperature and carbon dioxide levels are at the highest levels ever measured.

It has become an increasingly common phenomenon for people to pretend that there is a scientific controversy when there is none. It started with the anti-sciences of evolution and has become a public relations specialty of American industry. A few examples of this should suffice: tobacco, dioxin and acid rain.

If there are scientists who believe a serious scientific controversy exists about human-caused global warming, they need to publish articles in reputable peer-reviewed journals to back their viewpoint. As far as I can tell, there are none.

Allen Dorfman

Corvallis

Follow science and find global warming

In Ken Moore’s Jan. 15 letter concerning climate change (“Global warming? Don’t worry so much”), he notably fails to cite his sources. He is correct in his statement that water vapor is a greenhouse gas. He is further correct in his inference that rising water vapor levels in the atmosphere correlate with rising global temperatures.

However, he gets his causality backwards. As even schoolchildren know, higher temperatures lead to more water evaporation. More water evaporation, in turn, leads to more greenhouse gasses (water vapor) in the atmosphere. Water vapor is therefore demonstrably a feedback amplifier of global temperature. But the aspect amplified is still human produced carbon dioxide. Climate experts are far from fragmented in this conclusion.

Mr. Moore implores readers to “follow science and not celebrities, politicians, and extreme environmentalists.” I agree. A very good resource is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, whose third assessment report lead author Michael Mann states that “the role of water vapor as a greenhouse gas” is “very misleading.” The IPCC Web site is www.ipcc.ch.

Tucker Selko

Corvallis

Drive over speed bumps was smooth

The day before Greg Merritt’s Jan. 9 letter, “Speed bumps harm cars and clog traffic,” was published, I drove (Southwest) Brooklane Drive going 27 mph.

I didn’t increase my speed between bumps, nor did I hit the brakes at the speed bumps. My car went over the bumps smoothly, with no problem or discomfort.

I’ve never witnessed cars “lined up” to go over a speed bump — except when someone speeds between the bumps. If you build up traffic behind you because you are “forced” to go 25 mph, then both you (and the cars behind you) are speeding.

We drive cars that are seven years old and 30 years old, and we have no problems negotiating those small bumps at 25 mph. Perhaps someone driving that car has been “curb hitting” — notorious for causing tire and alignment problems.

There is a good alternative to this problem: Those south of Brooklane can take 35th Street to Highway 34. Oops; I forgot! That’s a school zone — another place you are forced to slow down. (And if you don’t slow down, the ticket could be larger than your car repair.)

It would be nice if all people drove adhering to the speed limit, with care for others, and we didn’t have to have those nasty bumps. Unfortunately, they don’t.

Lois Lacy

Corvallis

Learn rules about bicycles and cars

In response to Michael Hibbs’ Jan. 10 letter, “Reckless bike riders are a danger to all”:

Yes, I agree with this statement, but taking the lane where no bike lane is provided is both safe and correct. (See ORS 814.430(2)(c) which allows bicycles a full lane.

Many motorists pass cyclists leaving no room. Taking the lane forces the cars behind to make a lane change, thereby giving the

cyclist his share of the road.

I wish that motorists and cyclists alike would look at the “Bicyclist Manual” and “Oregon Driver Manual,” both available at the DMV. The rules of the road as the apply to motorists and cyclists are clear. Know them and obey them. We owe that to each other. We are all trying to get to where we are going.

We have been car free for more than a year now and have moved here from New Jersey to live in a bicycle-friendly environment. If I had my way, I’d route traffic around the city and not through it, but I realize we must all share the road.

I would like all of my fellow cyclists to contact the Oregon Department of Transportation and request that a “sharrow” be placed in the middle lane of Third Street, before the left turn onto Harrison Avenue. This is what we can do to make motorists aware of our presence. Thank you, and please obey the rules of the road.

David Lenher

Corvallis

Didn’t Bush get voters’ message?

Did the American people not make it clear enough during the November elections that we are through with George W. Bush’s decimation of our country’s good standing abroad? What part of the American people giving control of both houses back to the Democrats was vague?

We the people have been telling this regime for six years that we will not willingly stand by and allow America to engage in an endless, unwinable war. We will not stand by and allow the re-deployment of a “volunteer”army, many of whom have already served three or four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Throwing tens of thousands more Americans into a civil war with no means of gaining the upper hand, no understanding of the language or culture of those we are meant to help and a fair-to-middling chance of coming home alive is hardly the way I want my America to behave.

We must call, beg, protest, sit-in, revolt. It is time to make it absolutely clear that we want our America back, and restoring the last shreds of dignity that Bush No. 43 has stolen from us is the only way to proceed.

Tania Porter

Corvallis