My letter refers to your article concerning weather in the August issue. It is well written and easily read.

I appreciate that. However, I do believe that you were provided misleading information by Tony Lupo—or perhaps his opinion more than facts.

His media slam is in poor taste. One personal example: Years ago before media weather people started "superlatives," I was driving at night in a location where numerous small streams usually were dry. With little weather media coverage in those days, I was not aware of a large rainstorm in the area. I almost could not get stopped before going in [a stream] and possibly getting drowned. As far as I'm concerned, the superlatives of super caution during storm events in hill country cannot be overdone. This also applies to tornado warnings, high winds, etc. I am [a viewer] of the Weather Channel and other weather sources. I recall little if any global warming comments by these people.

The second problem is down playing the consequences. A trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, will show the costs and problems of buildings and foundations affected by permafrost thawing. Ice and glacier thawing are demonstrable as well.

The third problem (and here I refer to the book by Jarred Diamond, "Collapse") concerns civilization downfalls. [The book shows] that the Vikings did not collapse due only to the climate. Natives survived before the Vikings and still survive. The Vikings could not make the cultural changes necessitated by the extreme environment. One does have to wonder at the sanity of trying in the first place, however.

Finally, [Lupo] infers that the National Research Council states [warming] is just one of the many climate trends and that there is not much evidence of consequences. That is misleading. The NRC notes there are many causes, many uncertainties, but that the current trend is so pronounced it would be difficult to explain through variability alone.

James H. Williams

In response to the letter from Dr. Williams, I would like to bring to your attention the following points.

First, the "slam" on media meteorologists was not intended as such. I was not quoted as "slamming" them, nor would I slam the very people I have been a part of training; folks who are applying their trade in Missouri. They do a fantastic job of alerting the public to dangerous weather situations.

Also, while I appreciate the magnitude of what Dr. Williams has witnessed in such places as Alaska, this does not mean that every startling observation should be related to human-induced global warming. The Katrina and Rita hurricane disasters have similarly been attributed to global warming, but this point is easy to refute and could be the subject of another column. The fact is that even the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will concede that any warming, whether natural or human induced, will impact the arctic regions the greatest. There's a wealth of information available in the literature to support this. Additionally, even the IPCC does not unequivocally state that human induced global warming is a fact of life.

Finally, I will concede that Dr. William's point regarding the Vikings is likely correct, but the fact remains that climate was at least a factor in their demise. Williams himself concedes this point. Additionally, there are several examples in history of societies (e.g., the Mayan Indians and Indian civilizations in North America) where climate was at least some sort of influence in their demise. However, some of this work is controversial and is being debated in the literature. Nonetheless, I don't think Dr. Williams and I are far apart at all on this point.

Anthony R. Lupo

Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science

University of Missouri

Columbia, Mo.