Dear Editor, (sent to the Lewiston Tribune, April 9) You printed a letter headed “Science is not settled” in the April 6 edition. As a science and environment writer for almost 20 years, I confronted the hoax of the so-called “Petition Project” back in the 1990s while first covering climate change. I was surprised to see it again in your newspaper, especially when it’s been discredited. You can find the debunking of this “Petition Project” at Skeptical Science (“Over 31,000 scientists signed the OISM Petition Project” skepticalscience/OISM-Petition-Project.htm), Huffington Post (“The 30,000 Global warming Petition is easily Debunked Propaganda,” huffingtonpost/kevin-grandia/the-30000-global-warming_b_243092.html), and even on Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Petition). To name a few. This “Petition Project” is misinformation that, in reality, was signed by a tiny number of remotely relevant scientists: less than .1% of the signers have any background in climate science whatsoever. To print a letter containing such falsity when the consequences of continued climate denial are so high is, in my opinion, dangerous and frightening. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the source for valid climate science and assessment from the world’s best climate scientists. In fact, leading newspapers now refuse to print letters of climate change denial and misinformation, or, at the very least have a clear editorial policy for how to deal with such letters and views. See for example the LA Times decision *not* to print letters from deniers: “On letters from climate-change deniers,” (latimes/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-climate-change-letters-20131008,0,871615.story#axzz2yOzziy9U) and the encompassing story of other leading newspapers around the country: “How 9 Major Papers Deal With Climate Denying Letters” (motherjones/environment/2013/10/newspapers-climate-denial-letters-times). That the letter “Science is not settled,” even appeared in the Lewiston Tribune is a testament to how effective the campaign of misinformation has been for far too long. For all our sakes, I hope you will consider how to handle such misleading fiction. Sincerely, Rachel Clark
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 15:56:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015