Jacqui Detwiler's Aug. 31 column "Hot Damned! Part I" regarding the "smear campaign" against global warming is evidence of the silliness of this debate in our nation (which is not over, by the way).
With the exception of the EPA, none of the institutions or high-profile figures she mentions are scientific in nature-they are political. It is odd that our nation has turned a scientific investigation into a litmus test for national politics. If Detwiler thinks that global warming skeptics are all a bunch of oil-backed scumbag liars, she had better acquaint herself with respected university professors like John Christy (Alabama Huntsville) and Richard Lindzen (MIT).
Until she reads up on their work and their objections to the mainstream view of global warming and presents us with her own analysis of their arguments, I would hardly consider her entirely unscientific column to add anything of value to an ongoing public debate with serious consequences both for our nation's policy and its economy.
Mike Jenista
graduate student, Mathematics
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