The Capital Times Web page asserts “we do not print letters that have been generated from advocacy Web sites or organizations.” Apparently, global warming activist groups do not respect the Times’ policy.
In an Aug. 9 boiler-plate letter to the editor drafted by activist groups and circulated by activists around the country (see identical boiler-plate letters published this month at http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070818/OPINION03/708180327/1014/OPINION; http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/letters/204850; http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070814/A_OPINION02/708140303/-1/A_OPINION06; http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/OPINION/70730069/1015; http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2007/07/31/exxonmobil-needs-invest-new-energy/; http://www.joplinglobe.com/editorial/local_story_217203939.html; http://www.contracostatimes.com/letters/ci_6550241; http://www.gjsentinel.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2007/08/01/8_1_letters.html; http://www.postindependent.com/article/20070731/LETTER/107310024&SearchID=73290524643181; http://www.news-gazette.com/news/letters/ (July 30); http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070814/A_OPINION02/708140303/-1/a_opinion05; http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070809/OPINION/708090304; http://www.times-online.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12951&Itemid=118; and http://www.timesbeacon.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070805/OPINION/708050305/1014), the author of “Oil companies could find better uses for record profits” protests that an oil producer donates money to global warming “denier” groups like The Heartland Institute. Automobiles don’t run on wind, geothermal, solar or biomass power. Nor will they ever. I would like to see the letter-writer’s reaction if she woke up tomorrow and there was no gas available for her car.
Moreover, the climate scientists who actually do the research are quite divided over whether global warming is the crisis that environmental activist groups claim it to be. Indeed, a majority of climate scientists disagree that the science has been sufficiently settled to turn the matter over to politicians for “solutions” (see http://heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20732).
It is a shame that some people become willing tools of anti-science environmental extremist groups by cutting and pasting boiler-plate letters to the editor demanding a halt to scientific research, study and debate. I ask the Times to please publish this letter as a fitting reply to an activist form letter disguised as citizen outrage.
James M. Taylor ([email protected]) is senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute.
