Bob Van Velkinburgh responds to Todd Weiler's position on climate change

The following a response to Republican Todd Weiler's Davis County Clipper column titled, Is rising disbelief over global warming alarming or good?, was submitted by Davis County Democrat, Bob Van Velkinburgh. 

I know Todd Weiler and he is a pretty good country lawyer, but he is no scientist. Todd's article in the Davis Clipper, November 5, approaches the subject of global warming in a lawyer-like way. Quoting reputable journals and magazines is supposed to give credence to his argument that there is no such thing as global warming. Measuring temperature changes sixty years ago to support his idea of global cooling ignores the advancements in climatology technology. We cannot ignore the clearly evident changes we see in receding glaciers all over the world, the breaking up of the Antarctic ice shelf, and the dying coral reefs which are caused by increased acidity of our oceans (due to absorption of carbon dioxide). In 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that the panel, consisting of hundreds of scientists and reviewers, "asserts with near certainty-more than 90 percent confidence-that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from human activities have been the main causes of warming in the past half century."

If nine out of ten doctors told you that you have cancer, are you going to believe that the one doctor who said you don't have cancer is right? Thus, if over 90 percent of the scientists polled confirm global warming and that it is caused by human activity, who are you going to believe? While Todd is entitled to his opinion, he is not entitled to his own facts. So Todd, don't quit your day job.

Bob Van Velkinburgh

Bob Van Velkinburg Says: Utah has the best legislators that money can buy

Hopefully, within the next few weeks someone will contact you and ask you to sign a referendum petition to repeal HB148.

Sign it!

HB148 is the legislation recently passed in the last session that would use taxpayer money for parents who want to send their children to private schools. It is not my purpose to discuss here the many things that are bad about vouchers but I would like to zero in on this question.

Why would so much money be spent on this voucher issue? It is estimated that almost $500,000 was spent by people and organizations who favor vouchers.

Even more curious is why would an organization based in Wisconsin called "All Children Matter" want to spend $290,000 of their money to support this issue in Utah? Of course this organization is heavily funded by the Wal-Mart and Amway Heirs but what dog do they have in this fight?

Then there is the local Utah organization called "Parents for Choice." They paid back the Republican Party $70,000 for the cost of their dirty tricks flyers. Another $110,000 in direct contributions to their candidates. Parents For Choice PAC shelled out $58,000 to their picked candidates. Another $58,000 to elect their School Board candidates.

So you can see why Utahns can say with some degree of pride, "We have the best Legislators that money can buy."

Go to www.utahnsforpublicschools.org for more information.

Bob Van Velkinburgh