Clearing the deniers’ smokescreen

Michael Freeman’s letter (Jan. 21) campaign on global warming (he wrote a similar letter to Notre Dame magazine) ignores numerous inconvenient facts, the most important of which is that this past year has clearly been the warmest on record.

His claim of “satellite data” is misleading because the key data are the actual ground temperatures. This is typical of the deniers; the important facts are suppressed. Further, scientists in numerous disciplines have tracked the progress and effects of global warming, and by overwhelming majority have concluded that not only is the earth eating up, but that the principal though not the sole cause, is human activity.

As for the charge of a hoax,this is patently ridiculous. Science is based on observation, data, and experiment, not upon politics. One has only to cite the case of Richard Muller, at the University of California, Berkeley, who, having expressed doubts about climate change, obtained a grant from a conservative foundation, but discovered that his data supported both global warming and the role of humans causing it.

Finally, the charge of a political bias is the old trick of accusing one’s opponents of one’s own misdeeds. Global warming is incompatible with right-wing ideas on government.

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Clearing the deniers’ smokescreen."