Month 3, Day 3: Back in the Subway…

Riding the subway today and collected another copy of the “Metro.” I turned it down at first, but then noticed there was an article about Al Gore, so I grabbed one. It was a Reuters rehash of his NYT Op-Ed, with the final paragraph reading:

“Climate change skeptics have pointed to errors in the panel’s landmark 2007 report — an overestimate of how fast Himalayan glaciers would melt in a warming world and incorrect information on how much of the Netherlands is below sea level — as signs that the reports basic conclusions are flawed.”

So I wrote ’em a letter. From the New York Times to the Subway Metro. What a difference a day makes.

It’s too bad that climate change deniers don’t hold themselves to the same high standards they set for Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC’s 2007 report was three thousand pages long, and yet “skeptics” tell us that because of two errors, the report’s “basic conclusions are flawed.” The report’s basic conclusions are extremely robust — and these people aren’t “skeptics,” they’re “deniers.” Skepticism implies a genuine willingness to question all assertions, whether they’re aligned with one’s ideology or not. Over and over, we’ve seen climate deniers accept news stories that are riddled with errors, as long as those mistakes support their preconceptions. The world is warming, with results that could be catastrophic for us all — and willful ignorance is an unacceptable response to a threat of such gravity.

Warren Senders