Stewart's head in sand | The Salt Lake Tribune

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Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, needs to pull his head out of the sand. His op-ed "Be cautious on climate change" (Opinion, April 14) was filled with misinformation and half-truths.

To base his thoughts on the simplistic and misleading idea that the Earth has always gone through climate changes leaves out the fact that over the past century the climate changes have been far more severe. He mentioned an article in The Economist, but failed to mention the article's main thrust — "Climate change may be happening more slowly than scientists thought. But the world still needs to deal with it."

He dismissed the consensus of scientists on the validity of human causes of climate change by citing one study with only 77 people. He is ignoring many other studies, including the 2010 review by the National Academy of Science of data from 1,372 climate scientists who support the tenets of anthropogenic climate change. Obviously, Stewart did not find it necessary to do more research.

Perhaps his head is not in the sand; instead it is looking over his shoulder at Utah's Republican Party, most of whom have their heads buried deep in the sand.

Tom Bottman

Salt Lake City