Dear Mr. President

My good friend Nate recently sent George Bush a letter:

Dear Mr. President,

Even though I didn’t vote for you (really just over the one values issue but that was it), I took your call for greater unity during your second term to heart.  Therefore, as I run across items in the news that I think you should be aware of, I am going to forward them to you and to some of my like-minded friends.  Something caught my eye today and made me want to scream in outrage. I realize you do not have time to worry about these things during your trip to Italy but I thought you might be interested in knowing what those crazy neighbors to the north of Italy are doing (the Swiss sir, Switzerland is north of Italy) while you are there. Unlike you, they seem to be highly susceptible to junk science and now firmly believe that global warming is real. They are worried about the economic implications of the retreating glaciers on which their famous ski areas rest. Don’t they realize that just because their glaciers are retreating faster than ever before (16 feet per year in one case) that this is probably just a natural fluke of temperatures and not based on any human activity?  Don’t they realize that overreacting could really be expensive – and hurt the markets? Don’t they realize that it will all just blow over given more time?

You can read the article below but then I hope you get someone over there to check it out and straighten them out quickly.  I am sure you would not want to lose any Republican supporters in the next election over a bunch of trumped-up sky-is-falling baloney from those left-wing environmental wackos…and some scientists… like 99% of them.

Diamonds Are Forever
Swiss glacier to be wrapped up, saved for later

A Swiss ski resort worried about global warming's ill effects on its future is taking matters into its own mittened hands. At the ski season's end in May, the Andermatt resort will cover some 32,200 square feet of the Gurschen glacier with an insulating PVC foam in hopes of keeping its black diamonds from melting into bunny slopes. The foam, which costs some $84,000 and can be stored during winter for reuse, was constructed by Swiss technicians to protect the snow layer from heat, ultraviolet rays, and rain. The country's glaciers have lost about a fifth of their surface area in the last 15 years, according to a Zurich University study linking the loss to global warming, and the ice field above Andermatt is retreating by about 16 feet a year, a resort spokesperson says. If the PVC-foam trial is successful, the resort plans to cover more of the glacier, and other resorts may also get in on the doggy-bagging technique.

straight to the source: The Telegraph, Kate Bretherton, 02 Apr 2005

straight to the source: Iafrica.com, Agence France-Presse, 22 Mar 2005

Nate Blair