A relative recently showed me a column in the Tribune in which the author stated, "There are no longer any peer reviewed scientific articles disputing that a major factor in global warming is the behavior of human beings."

Many scientists in all fields do not believe that the warming, if any, is caused by man. Those scientists believe that any global warming taking place is a result of natural cycles in the earth's climate produced in turn by such things as cycles of the sun's heat output.

The global warming crowd tells us that carbon dioxide, CO2, from factories, power plants and cars is the major greenhouse gas trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere, but is this true?

According to reliable sources, including the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, water vapor is the most abundant greenhouse gas, composing about 95 percent of the greenhouse effect.

Methane, CH4, is listed as the next culprit. It is produced by almost all animals and plants.

That's according to LibertyMatters and a Reuters article.

Researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, say living plants produce 10 to 30 percent of methane found in the atmosphere, annually. By measuring the amounts of methane produced by plants in controlled studies, the scientists observed the gas increased with rising temperatures and exposure to sunlight. David Lowe, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, writes about satellite images of "incredibly large plumes of methane above tropical forests."

The anti-global warming Kyoto treaty would tax sources of CO2, such as cars and factories. The following is taken from a paper written by Jason Shogren, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming:

3 Higher fuel prices - up to 50 cents per gallon more.

3 Higher costs for electricity - estimates are that electricity prices would double the number of job losses. As many as 2 million jobs would disappear.

I guess farmers wouldn't mind increased fuel costs, and all of us would love to have our electric bill double, all to try to stop what may be an unstoppable natural climate cycle. No? Then people had better get informed on this issue or they'll pay the consequences. Nations like India and China are some of the largest CO2 producers in the world, yet the Kyoto treaty wouldn't apply to them.

Thank goodness the U.S. Congress so far has refused to be a party to this nonsensical treaty. But pressure to ratify Kyoto is mounting. People are being bamboozled by the global warming alarmists in a big way, and they need to wake up.

The important thing to realize is that scientists are not in agreement on global warming, and the drastic actions proposed by the "global warming is our fault" crowd would ruin our economy, plus making the United States uncompetitive in world markets. But, wouldn't it be worth it to save the Earth? Not if we're not causing it in the first place.

As for Al Gore and his "the sky is falling" movie, it is laughably easy to refute the so-called science in that piece of drivel.

Everybody should research this issue for themselves instead of accepting the word of those who have a vested interest in global warming being true.

(Albright cites numerous authorities having Web sites as sources of his assertions. - Editor)