cc: Thibault de Garidel <garidel@marine.rutgers.edu>, Gavin Schmidt <gschmidt@giss.nasa.gov>, "<k.briffa@uea.ac.uk> <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>" <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>, "<rasmus.benestad@physics.org> <rasmus.benestad@physics.org>" <rasmus.benestad@physics.org>, Ray Pierrehumbert <rtp1@geosci.uchicago.edu>, Stefan Rahmstorf <rahmstorf@ozean-klima.de>, wigley@ucar.edu, Eric Steig <steig@ess.washington.edu>, Ray Bradley <rbradley@geo.umass.edu>, "Michael E. Mann" <mann@psu.edu>, "<t.osborn@uea.ac.uk> <t.osborn@uea.ac.uk>" <t.osborn@uea.ac.uk>, Rasmus Benestad <rasmus.benestad@met.no>, William M Connolley <wmc@bas.ac.uk>, "<tcrowley@duke.edu> <tcrowley@duke.edu>" <tcrowley@duke.edu>, Caspar Ammann <ammann@ucar.edu>, "<chris.folland@metoffice.gov.uk> <chris.folland@metoffice.gov.uk>" <chris.folland@metoffice.gov.uk>
date: Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:43:13 -0800
from: Eric Steig <steig@u.washington.edu>
subject: Re: letter to the editor this morning
to: David Archer <d-archer@uchicago.edu>

<x-flowed>
Except he should have said "denial" rather than "skepticism"

Eric


David Archer wrote:
>
> This guy says it better than we did...
>
> To the Editor:
>
> The article about the global warming debate claims to identify an 
> intermediate position between President Bush’s refusal to acknowledge 
> the reality of climate change and the view, articulated by Al Gore in 
> his documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” that such change poses a 
> clear and present danger to human life.
>
> This is not, however, what the article does. Rather, on every major 
> point, starting with the question of whether climate change is an 
> established scientific finding, the middle stance agrees with the Gore 
> position and rejects the Bush deception. The notion that the truth is 
> midway between two poles of debate is a longstanding American myth, 
> but it does not work in this case.
>
> While neither “An Inconvenient Truth” nor the so-called middle stance 
> is the final word on climate change, both are responsible efforts to 
> get at the truth. By contrast, skepticism about global warming is a 
> position unmoored from reality.
>
> Daniel A. Segal
> Claremont, Calif., Jan. 1, 2007
> /The writer is an anthropology professor at Pitzer College.
>
> /

</x-flowed>