So fellow Stafford resident Jeremy Symons, with the National Wildlife Federation in D.C., blames global warming for recent weather woes hereabouts ["Fossil fuels create pollution and global warming," July 24].

"Our local heat wave is the latest in a global trend," he claims.

Maybe so, but thinking back to last year at this time, was it also part of a global trend when we had so unusually mild a summer and, if memory serves, we hardly broke a sweat?

And no hurricanes, either--an absence now for several years on the East Coast that has weather watchers scratching their heads trying to understand why.

The local mild streak also extended, if memory serves, to last winter when I had to take out my snow shovel not even once.

If those prior weather changes here were also caused by global warming--or the current label, climate change--I'd say let's have more of it.

I'm surprised the author didn't also indict the roaring current drought in the Midwest as further evidence of our dependence on carbon-emitting fossil fuels, or something.

But isn't the EPA still busy shutting down coal mines, based on their alleged fouling of our air that's long been improving in quality nevertheless?

So what's more to do? Author Symons writes that we must hurry up and convert to solar and wind power.

But, wait a minute. Since he works for wildlife protectors and preservers, shouldn't he be more concerned with our area's booming deer population and the recent sightings of coyotes as additional signs of global warming? Just wondering.

Ben R. Blankenship Jr.

Stafford