Upon reading Walter Cunningham’s op-ed [“Winning the War with Global Warming Alarmists,” Commentary, July 9, page 19], my observation is that he comes across as a skeptic, not a realist. As a purported realist, it would be helpful to know what kind of realist: Naive? Direct? Representative? Critical? Epistemological? Objective? Hyper-transcendental? Platonic? Scientific? There are so many kinds of realists.

I observe also that a letter to the NASA administrator from 50 former NASA employees ought not to carry any more weight than 50 letters from farmers, builders or clam diggers, though it seems to be intended to carry extra weight.

So hard to get across is that large-scale release of sequestered carbon is a major event, and major events always have major consequences. Were Cunningham on the beach facing a tsunami, he would probably run like hell. A slow tsunami? Well, hold on now. Maybe it’s not a real tsunami.

It is puzzling that Walter Cunningham, as someone who had the extreme privilege of observing this fragile planet from space, has sided with those who choose to remain both uninformed and unconvinced.

 

Ed Hujsak

La Jolla, Calif.