Letter: Climate deniers like tobacco industry

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I guess Ronald Jones ("Climate change is still just a swindle," April 21) has not seen any current photos of Western mountain forests wholly dead as a consequence of bark beetle infestations that have spread northwards in a few decades as a consequence of winters too warm to kill insect larvae. Maybe dead trees are more flammable than live trees?

The swindle related to climate change is not the broad and deep scientific evidence from thousands of scientists observing all parts of our Earth (see most recent confirmation by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). The swindle is from people with investments and established infrastructure in fossil fuel extraction who cannot bear to leave behind a discredited industry.

Remember the decades-long effort to unseat the tobacco industry? How unbelievable that dear tobacco smoke could cause cancer! Putting a cost to fossil fuel extraction might give pause to fuel burners, just as raising the cost of cigarettes is deterring smoking.

Change is hard; money talks. Science provides hard evidence that is testable. Truth will out, and eventually dominate our choices. May we not be too late in seeing the truths.

Naomi Franklin

Salt Lake City