Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent over the last 15 years to reduce the amount of “man made” CO2 emitted into the atmosphere as a way to prevent global warming. The governor’s and other’s attempt to reduce our coal-fired power plant emissions and those attempting to block coal shipments to China are just the latest local examples.

Those advocating for these policies should be aware of information and conclusions based on recent ice core studies.

A new paper published in Climate of the Past finds that CO2 levels lagged temperature changes in East Antarctic ice cores by 500-1,500 years during the warming at the onset of the last interglacial, and lagged temperatures by 5,000 years after the start of glaciation at end of the last interglacial (120,000 years ago).

Despite Al Gore’s attempt to obscure this inconvenient truth, temperatures lead CO2 levels on long, intermediate, and short-term timescales, on both the upside and the downside. CO2 cannot be the “control knob” or “amplifier” of climate, because the tail does not wag the dog, the cause does not follow the effect and the globe starts to warm and cool 500-5,000 years in advance of CO2 changes.

Bill Hirt, Bellevue