Richard Anderson: Merchants of doubt trying to scuttle Paris talks

Kudos for The Bee Editorial “Our View: Denial won’t solve problem of climate change” (Oct. 30). Our society is now more accepting of human-assisted global warming impacts.

In the Nov. 13 issue of Science, geophysicist Marcia McNutt wrote an editorial, “Climate warning, 50 years later” with encouraging news. “Within the past few weeks, 10 oil producers, representing 20 percent of global production have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by curbing the flaring of natural gas and investing in carbon capture and storage.” Twelve major corporations, including General Motors, Alcoa and Bank of America pledged to invest $140 billion in CO2 curtailment.

A group of representatives, led by Rep. Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., have correctly interpreted the climate “writing on the wall.”

Sen. Jim Inhofe’s book, The Greatest Hoax, describes how merchants of doubt created public disbelief of global warming when emails of scientists Michael Mann and some others were hacked; this helped scuttle the 2009 Copenhagen Summit.

Now, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chair of the House Committee on Science Space and Technology is subpoenaing NOAA documents to see if scientists have again been hoaxing, by publishing an article indicating global warming has been progressing even since 1998. Perhaps Smith hopes to scuttle the Paris talks.

This story was originally published November 30, 2015 at 1:04 PM with the headline "Richard Anderson: Merchants of doubt trying to scuttle Paris talks."