To the editor:

A recent CBC story said eating red meat is a major contributor to global warming, because of the methane gas emitted when cows pass gas. One contributor to the program equated bovine flatulence with air pollution created by SUVs, and advocated a vegetarian diet for all earthlings. Only at the end of the program was it revealed the person was a vegan.

I equate global-warming fanatics with the more extreme members of the anti-tobacco lobby - people who seem to enjoy bullying people who smoke.

What seems to go relatively unpublicized in the global-warming debate are two recent studies.

One claims that every historic incidence of global warming coincided with increases in sun-spot activity. I tend to believe that the sun, which is the biggest thing in our solar system, probably has more impact on our climate than anything else.

A second study indicated that Mars, Venus and even Jupiter are beginning to show signs of warming. Nobody lives on those planets. They have no SUVs, bovine flatulence or polluting industry. Why do we have the unmitigated gall to presume that our puny little human population is causing the climate of our planet to warm?

The Earth is warming. I just refuse to believe we have any huge share in the blame.

Such claims are like the story about the mouse and the elephant walking across a bridge. When they got to the other side, the mouse said to the elephant, "We really shook that bridge, didn't we?"

In this story, humans are the mouse - but we happen to have an elephant-sized ego.