To the editor:
I'm shocked, shocked.
I've gotten used to Dean Burgess' letters to the editor appearing with the regularity of a column. I've gotten used to disagreeing with almost everything he says. Every once in a while, I think he's made a valid point. But I'm shocked at his apparent lack of knowledge regarding the carbon cycle.
It's a fact, known by almost everyone who's ever taken a high school biology course, that animals take in oxygen from the air they breathe and emit carbon dioxide, and plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen.
This is such a basic fact that it's shocking that anyone claiming to have a valid opinion about man-made global warming should get it wrong, as Mr. Burgess did in his letter to the editor, published Thursday, Nov. 9, 2009. Mr. Burgess claims that both plant and animal life emit carbon dioxide. This is such a glaring error that it suggests that Mr. Burgess just plain doesn't know what he's talking about.
Global warming is not just a political issue. It's a scientific issue as well. Anyone who addresses the political issue should at least be informed about the science.
Mr. Burgess has his scientific facts all mixed up. Why should we pay any attention to his political views?
elizabeth thomas
Seaview Road, Gloucester
