Global warming dismissal misleading
David Lazar’s article on global warming (“Global warming threat overblown,” Jan. 30) was filled with misleading information.
First of all, there is no controversy in scientific circles about global warming or its anthropogenic origins.
The 2001 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report detailing the correlation between human activity and global warming was endorsed by countless government organizations around the world, including our own Academy of Sciences.
One of Lazar’s points relies heavily on an interview with Christopher Landsea, a hurricane specialist who has no special training in issues of global warming.
Landsea is also a personal favorite of the Bush administration and withdrew from the 2005 IPCC because he did not like the political implications of the scientific consensus being drawn.
Lazar uses the warming between 1910 and 1945 and the subsequent cooling to say that only the last 30 years or so can be used as any indication of anthropogenic warming, but those 30 years are all anyone would need to be seriously alarmed.
Temperatures are rising at an alarming rate ““ the past 20 years have seen 19 of the hottest years in the past 147.
Lazar’s reference to snow in Los Angeles is funny, but is unfortunately all too characteristic of the dissembling nature of the column as a whole.
Dante Apollo Atkins
UCLA alumnus, Class of 2003
Campaign required the shock value
As one of the dozens of people involved in the “No Ordinary People” campaign, I would like to address the issues raised in the letter to the editor “”˜No Ordinary People’ campaign ineffective” (Jan. 31).
First, Nicholas A. Skewes-Cox wrote, “It seems that the group attempted to shock and scare people” and that the campaign made him uncomfortable.
I apologize on behalf of all of us, but the shock value was required. We feel that human trafficking is such a heinous crime, and since a large majority of individuals are unaware of this problem, we needed to bring as much attention to it as possible.
Second, there were numerous displays set up for the campaign that were different than the one described.
People who took the time to ask the members what could be done about human trafficking would have found out that we had partnered with International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression.
The four-day campaign we had was finished with a fundraising campaign for IJM, which raised thousands of dollars.
In the future, I would ask the UCLA community to take a moment to see what campus groups have to say.
Richard H. Hsiao
Fourth-year, political science and public policy
InterVarsity Bruin Christian Fellowship
Universal health care an improvement
In “Public care violates rights” (Jan. 31), Sara Triplett fails to mention that a form of universal health care already exists ““ the right to emergency care.
Universal health care would be an improvement on our current system because doctors would no longer have to work for free, emergency rooms would stop losing money and closing, and individuals could have access to the health care system before their problems qualify as emergencies.
Ryan Schmidt
Graduate student,
UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program,
David Geffen School of Medicine