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January 14, 2009

Calling out warmist bullies

Brian Schwarz and Thomas Lifson
It should come as no surprise to find courage coming from the United States Naval Academy. But when the subject is global warming, it is a pleasant confirmation of a more general point. Professor Mark Campbell of the USNA is yet another hero from Annapolis. His response to name calling from a Baltimore Sun editorialist deserves an audience beyond Maryland.

The good professor wrote the following letter, published yesterday in the Sun:

According to the editorial "A New Year's resolution" (Jan. 2), tens of thousands of scientists like me are "flat-earth types."

I guess my doctorate in chemical physics from Johns Hopkins doesn't give me nearly the qualifications to analyze the science associated with the global climate as an editor with an agenda.

If we are going to stoop to name-calling, an appropriate name for people with the view The Baltimore Sun endorses could be "Chicken Littles." But instead of claiming that the sky is falling, they claim the sky is burning.

The editorial claims that there is a consensus among scientists that man-made carbon dioxide is causing global climate change; however, consensus in science is an oxymoron. From Galileo to Einstein, one scientist with proof is more convincing than thousands of other scientists who believe something to be true.

And I don't even grant that there is a consensus among scientists; it's just that the press only promotes the global warming alarmists and ignores or minimizes those of us who are skeptical. To many of us, there is no convincing evidence that carbon dioxide produced by humans has any influence on the Earth's climate.

Arguing that our country should decrease its use of fossil fuels is a laudable goal, but the reason to do so should be to reduce our reliance on energy from foreign sources, not to reduce the danger from some imaginary boogeyman.

The sky is not burning, and to claim that it is amounts to journalistic malpractice.Mark Campbell Annapolis

The writer is a professor of chemistry at the U.S. Naval Academy.

The liberal media have taken upon themselves the role of enforcers of Al Gore's global warming con game, resorting to insults to dismiss legitimate questioning of what is, after all, only a theory, one that has not been proven. It is very important to stand up and confront these bullies, challenging them, to defend their insults. The one thing that warmists fear most is a serious scientific debate. That's why they always fall back on the phony claim of "consensus" - a claim that makes no sense, as science is not decided by consensus, and as more and more scientists stand up and puncture the claim.

Professor Campbell strikes me as a man worthy of his institution. And that is saying a lot.

Hat tip: Mark Roth

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