GLOBAL STORMING

»In his recent column (“Is it all doom and gloom?”, December 2006), George Koch lists a number of skeptics to counter the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report by over 2,000 climate scientists. Koch’s skeptics include: Frederick Seitz, who was born in 1911; William Gray, who doesn’t believe man is involved in global warming; Hans Von Storch, who thinks climate change is a good thing; and Martin Durkin, who compares environmentalists to Nazis. At the end of his article Mr. Koch refers to his website Dr. J & Mr. K. Dr. J is a petroleum geologist who used to work for Husky Oil.

Over the past 60 years, Canada’s average temperature has increased 1.98 degrees, with six of the warmest years occurring in the last decade. Last year, Ontario’s largest ski resort, Blue Mountain, laid off 1,300 workers after closing down its ski operations in the middle of the winter season for the fi rst time in the resort’s 65-year history. Thomas Grandi and Sarah Renner have witnessed the impact of global warming with the cancellation of several World Cup ski races. They aren’t focused on doom and gloom; they are trying to do something about it by being part of “Play It Cool.” I think Ski Canada should take more seriously the threat of climate change to the skiing industry since your magazine won’t sell very well when skiing becomes an extinct sport.

NANCY BIGGS, Ottawa

»I found George Koch’s article to be a thoughtful, well-presented compilation of personal observations and excerpts from various sources that illustrate that there is nothing new about change, and that bad science is more common than generally suspected. Want to see confi rmation that the world is changing? Go to the Interpretative Centre at the Columbia Icefi elds in Jasper National Park. Historical photos show the Athabasca Glacier retreating quickly long before man-made effects would have had a large infl uence.

As to what these changes mean to our small part of the world. In the 10 years I have been involved in the B.C. ski industry, I have seen: • Record amounts of snow (1998-99) • Record thin snowpack due to a persistent (cold) Arctic high-pressure system (2000-01) • Less than normal snowpack with little snow below 1,400 metres (2003-04) • Great snow year if you didn’t mind the Pineapple Express in January (2004-05) • Great snow year with the most snow at 1,000 metres elevation since 1998-99 (2006-07)

Yes, I think we should work hard to minimize our impact on the world and the atmosphere. No, I don’t think exporting cash in carbon credits trading is the way to go.

And if you can stand one more story, this time from The Globe and Mail: the focus of the article was on how the Inuit of Canada’s far north are affected by climate change. The writer related how the rising temperature was melting the permafrost and releasing long-frozen logs, which the Inuit were burning for fi rewood. He never did get around to theorizing how warm it must have been to grow those trees that far north.

TOM MORGAN, Monashee Powder Snowcats, Vernon, B.C.

» George Koch is certainly entitled to his opinions on climate change, but what possessed you to publish them in Ski Canada? If I want to read this kind of misinformation, it’s all too easy to fi nd elsewhere. Please stick to what you do best and leave climate change denial to the “experts.”

JOHN WELLS, Victoria

» Well, George Koch is a global-warming skeptic. I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s consistent with his right-wing, conservative thought processes. And he’s right, he’s an “untrained oaf.” He really should have spent more time reading the scientifi c reports and thinking things through a bit better. He’s embarrassingly silly. I’m surprised and disappointed that you published this article. I have never liked George Koch’s writing and would be quite happy if it disappeared from Ski Canada.

DON HEPPNER, Nanoose Bay, B.C.

» Well done, George Koch! There should be more articles like yours in Canadian magazines. Instead, we are getting a lot of “globull” stories! Keep up the good work.

ANDRE BOGDAN, Calgary

» George Koch starts off by saying his article is “not about whether global warming is happening,” but then goes on to drag out every hoary argument against climate change in circulation—from I had an awesome ski day in April so it can’t be true to quotes from weather forecasters pointing out that Al Gore isn’t a scientist. It’s important to think for yourself, George, but rehashing old debates about temperature graphs, obsessing over debunked documentaries and tracking down dissenting voices doesn’t refl ect free thinking, it refl ects intellectual stubbornness.

For readers who want more information, I suggest these sites: go to realclimate.org for a plain language summary of the scientifi c arguments that climate change is happening, human caused and not good for the planet’s future; for a quick response to arguments against climate change, go to gristmill.grist.org and see “How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic” or newscientist.com for “Climate Change: A Guide for the Perplexed”; and for a detailed review of the fl aws in Great Global Warming Swindle, go to medialens.org and look in the archive for the March 13, 2007, alert.

KEVIN WASHBROOK, Vancouver

» I read George Koch’s latest article in Ski Canada. Is he nuts? He’s gonna get killed by some greenie— gonna get shot with some hybrid gun. Loved every line of the article.

FRED PULLER, Sparwood, B.C.

» Koch’s prose fumes like a glossy 300-pound mass of ordure, oscillating between the sublimely illuminating and the ridiculously offensive. I yearn for it. It’s a fl agrant announcement of the writer’s metamorphosis into a total being, pointing rigidly at the failure of intuition. The glare it casts on a prohibition of angst is nothing short of blinding. It breathes mortality. As the reader, we are compelled to strip away our own layers of awareness, leaving nothing attached to the singularity but fear and commitment. I found the primitive, writhing sinews of this piece to be simultaneously delightful and disquieting. This is not merely art—it is an event. Koch is indeed a fearless and meticulous visionary who knows that his audience must not be only moved, but also removed—relocated and recontextualized in the presence of his work. This is the key! This story must be understood for what its intentions are not—a brutal challenge to the reader, almost a threat in the face of anachronistic corruption.

JEFF TAYLOR, Toronto

Huh? Yes, well, um, on that note, more discussion on the world according to Koch next issue, and I promise, lots of other subjects. —Ed.