Charen cool to science

The Spokesman-Review’s editorial of Aug. 31 ends, “an ounce of alarmism is worth a pound of fault-finding.” Mona Charen preaches the opposite. She uses only one source against climate change.

Unfortunately, Dr. Lindzen belongs to a think tank funded by ExxonMobil. He charged exorbitant “consulting fees,” according to Harper’s magazine. Dr. Arthur Smith, vice president of the National Space Society, wrote that either Lindzen had fallen into “epistemic closure of paranoia and conspiracy theories … or he has been consciously participating in the malicious disinformation campaign on climate.”

According to NASA, NOAA and the British CRU, 2010 was tied for the hottest year on record. Lindzen says there has been no increase in global temperature since 1998; the decade was the warmest on record. More than 300 scientists in 48 nations working for NOAA affirm the past 50 years have been steadily warming.

Mona Charen trusted the word of either a lunatic or a paid disinformation agent. Perhaps she should read “Skeptical Science” on the Web. It may save her some embarrassment, such as saying Dr. Mann works for the University of Massachusetts rather than Penn State.

Jeff Bourget

Coeur d’Alene

(Editor’s note: Mona Charen did erroneously state the university that Dr. Michael Mann represents. It is Penn State University.)