I write this in response to Hubert Kauffman’s guest column, “How can people deny climate change?” (Aug. 18).

I believe that man-made global warming is a political hoax. Earth’s climate is always changing, otherwise, Maine would still be under half a mile of ice, or there would still be tropical jungles in Alaska.

The question that must be answered is whether it is a natural process or one mankind has caused.

Al Gore’s film, “An inconvenient truth,” shows a dramatic chart of rising carbon dioxide levels relating to rising global temperatures, giving the false impression that CO2 levels cause global warming. Actually, most scientists now believe that naturally rising temperatures on Earth produce higher levels of CO2. It makes sense that if temperatures rise, there will be much more plant life (therefore, more CO2). Naturally warming oceans also give off more CO2.

Most scientists agree that, on Earth, temperature rises first and then CO2 levels follow about 600 years later.

Here are some other observations about the “man-made” global warming myth:

More than 30,000 scientists around the world disagree with Al Gore’s conclusions. It is not settled science, by far.

Greenhouse gases have always surrounded the Earth. The main component of greenhouse gas is water vapor, accounting for 65 to 85 percent of the total.

Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It accounts for about 2 percent of greenhouse gases. Of the 210 billion tons of CO2 released each year from this planet into the atmosphere, humans contribute a mere 1 percent (of the 2 percent).

Average temperatures rise and fall naturally over time. The Earth was much warmer 7,000 years ago and CO2 levels were about 10 times higher then. Three of the hottest years of the past century were in the 1920s and 1930s, when there was much less “man made” CO2.

The “global warming” industry in the U.S. is subsidized by taxpayers, and is a way for the government to pick winners and losers. Alternative energy is currently uneconomical and has cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

The famous “climate-gate scandal” uncovered British scientists manipulating their studies to support their activist global warming theories.

John Coleman, Weather Channel founder, has called the theory a “hoax” that carbon-based fossil fuels will lead to catastrophic global warming. That hoax has definite political goals.

Global warming or cooling will happen on this planet with or without human presence. To blame mankind is purely a political tool not based on facts.

George Mathews, Auburn

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