Thomas Goldstein of Phoenix, Arizona is a professional attorney. He has been in private practice since 2002.
He specializes in contract law but is also interested in environmental law. “I want t to do what I can to protect the planet,” he says. “We’re living in a dangerous times.” As an Arizona resident he has been exposed to elements of American Indian culture he did not know about in Ohio, where he grew up. “There is a Hopi Indian word, ‘Koyaanisqatsi,’ which means ‘life out of balance. ‘And I think that’s where we are today. I think life is terribly out of balance on this planet. And somehow a Hopi visionary saw this, clearly, a long time ago.”
There may be no greater indicator of a life out of balance than the ongoing climate change that has been shown to be scientific fact, over and over, says Thomas Goldstein of Phoenix, Arizona. “The earth’s climate is going to react to whatever forces it to change. That’s just the way it is,” he says. “And humans are now the single most dominant force on the planet. Have been for a long, long time.”
As he knows, skeptics of climate change say that the earth’s climate has changed before, from non-human forces. These non-human forces, this position goes, had nothing to do with coal-fired power plants or gas emissions from SUVs. Therefore humans cannot be causing the global warming that the earth is presently experiencing.
“What balderdash!” cries Thomas Goldstein of Phoenix, Arizona. “The fact of the matter is that scientific research – peer reviewed scientific research – reaches the exact opposite conclusion. No one argues that past climate change has happened because of natural forces. Not me, anyway. But to say that means humans aren’t causing the current climate change is illogical. It beggars reason. It’s like saying people can’t cause forest fires because they happen from natural causes!”