I read “A global Farce?” (ODE, Nov. 17, 2008) in Monday’s paper with amazement. Hannah Hoffman didn’t write, and Editor-in-Chief Ashley Chase didn’t print, a story about those who deny that global warming is human-caused. They, in fact, wrote and printed, on page one, a story that attempts to provide evidence that global warming is not human-caused. Nowhere in the story is such evidence refuted with the broad body of scientific consensus that global warming is caused by humans.
I am resisting the urge to refute, one by one, the arguments reported in the piece, knowing that, if the Nobel Prize-winning scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change haven’t convinced the Daily Emerald, I won’t be able to, either. It saddens me greatly that this passes for science-based journalism at a university. Perhaps it is the natural outcome of eight years of anti-science national leadership by President Bush and the Republican Party.
It is fitting that this story came out the same day as a related story. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has just reported that the vast majority of signatories to the Kyoto Protocol will likely fail in their attempts to achieve binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The Daily Emerald can now take credit for helping to rally public opinion against meaningful attempts to reduce global warming emissions. I am embarrassed for this whole institution and shudder to think that other universities will learn of our sad situation.
When Ms. Hoffman and Ms. Chase seek journalism careers after graduation, I hope they will show the courage of their convictions and proudly sport this example of their work to potential employers. Time will tell how the world will view this kind of a story, written at the end of 2008. My guess, though, is that such work will be lumped, if it isn’t already, with those that hung on to such theories as “tobacco doesn’t cause cancer,” “the Holocaust never happened,” and “some races are intellectually superior to others.” I find the denial of human-caused global warming just as offensive.
Tim ReamSchool of Law 2010