Mickey McVay (“Kool-Aid’s global warming flavor,” Oct. 24, Gazette) then tells us that those who believe in anthropological climate change need courses in historical geology.
This is from a man who previously and falsely told us (Letters, “Mistaken environmentalists,” Sept. 14, 2011, Gazette) that
the atmosphere is 95-percent water. People who can’t get what is in
Oklahoma’s sixth-grade science standards right should not tell others to
take coursework.
Climate scientists know climate has
changed extensively prior to man, as a check of their writings will
reveal. So does the Geological Society of America, whose position is
that human activities “account for most of the warming since the middle
1900s.”
He then brags about “16,000” — actually 31,487 — “degreed scientists” who signed the Oregon Petition against global warming.
The
petition has been around for 14 years, has had mass mailings trolling
for signatures, and represents a fraction of 1 percent of the people
with at least a bachelor’s degree in science or engineering.
Making
such lists of “scientists,” which is also done by creationists and
those who deny that HIV causes AIDS, is a common tactic used by cranks
to gain false respectability.
Mike Brake (“Rational on
climate change,” Oct. 17) suggests the sun is responsible for the
warming as did McVay in his 2011 letter. In the last few decades, while
global average temperatures have gone up, solar output has gone slightly down.
Do they think that the vast majority of relevant scientists would be so stupid as to ignore the sun?
—Michael Hopkins, Norman
This article appears in Oct 31 – Nov 6, 2012.