Global warming - It's hot when the sun shines

Letter to the Editor #15, 'The Gladstone Observer" 20th October,2009.
(200 words) ; by Allan Taylor of Hove, Adelaide.

MEREDITH PAPAVASSILIOU is correct to say it is obvious global warming is happening. (Editorial 9/10/09). In fact, it happens every day and every year with monotonous regularity.

And right at my back door too! Before dawn it may be only 10 degrees but by noon often it gets to 25 degrees. In summer, temperatures may reach over 30 degrees each day for weeks on end. A daily variation of 15 to 20 degrees is normal and we take it in our stride.

Being an observant person I have noticed that daytime heating coincides with the presence of the sun overhead. Coldness occurs when the sun is not visible, such as at night time. It's the sun, you idiot!

I put forward this radical hypothesis for global warming (and cooling) as an alternative to the now popular among politicians "greenhouse gas" hypothesis which seems to blame a minute amount (385 ppm) of CO2 gas present in our atmosphere. Furthermore, we are supposed to be scared that over the past 100 years increasing greenhouse gases have apparently caused a global temperature rise of less than 1 degree! Therefore, the pollies say, we must pass the ETS/CPRS bill to save the earth (but also destroy the Australian economy).