As a geophysicist with experience in oil exploration, climate research and environmental cleanup, I am concerned about Congressman Scott Tipton’s statements in an August, 2016 interview with ThinkProgress.

In the interview, Congressman Tipton acknowledged that there are natural climate variations, bringing both glaciers and drought to Colorado over the course of thousands of years. But the congressman dismisses the notion of human-caused climate change.

Congressman, the same fundamental climatic science that informs us of natural climate variations over a few thousand years in Colorado also shows us variations in global climatic conditions over hundreds of thousands of years. Since 1950, carbon dioxide, the primary atmospheric greenhouse gas, has increased in concentration by 30 percent to 400 parts per million. The climate record shows this rate of increase and current concentration are unprecedented in the past 800,000 years.

The reasons for this extraordinary increase in carbon dioxide are clearly human activity. Burning fossil fuels, farming, and deforestation release about 35 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. Coinciding with increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1950, average global temperature has increased about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is responsible for the increase in global temperature.

According to NASA “...atmospheric carbon dioxide acts as a thermostat in regulating the temperature of Earth,” and “...global warming can be linked directly to the observed increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide and to human industrial activity in general.”

Effects of global warming include sea level rise, coastal flooding, changing precipitation patterns, more extreme weather events and shifting agricultural regions. Any one of these impacts is troublesome; taken together the effects are alarming and have irreversible long-term consequences.

In the interview Congressman Tipton says we must be “responsible and make good common sense decisions.” I wholeheartedly agree. Congressman Tipton, for the sake of your constituents and for future generations of Coloradans, please join other Republican and Democratic representatives in the Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus and support policies, such as a fee on carbon, that recognize and address the threat posed by climate change.

James Cunningham

Durango

Editor’s note: James Cunningham is a volunteer with Citizens Climate Lobby.