Skeptical of “global warming skeptics”
Since you chose to give some credibility to the opinions of UVA Professor Patrick Michaels by interviewing him as part of your article on global warming [“Al Gore Heats Up,” June 6], I thought your readers should be aware of Professor Michaels’ questionable motives and methods. The following quotes are from an article by a fellow academician, Paul Krugman, in the New York Times, May 29, 2006.
“Dr. James Hansen was one of the first climate scientists to say publicly that global warming was underway.
“…soon after Dr. Hansen’s 1988 testimony [at a congressional hearing], energy companies be-gan a campaign to create doubt about global warming, in spite of the increasingly overwhelming evidence. And in the late 1990s, climate skeptics began a smear campaign against Dr. Hansen himself.
“Leading the charge was Patrick Michaels, a professor at the University of Vir-ginia who has received substantial financial support from the energy industry. In Senate testimony, and then in numerous presentations, Dr. Michaels claimed that the actual pace of global warming was falling far short of Dr. Hansen’s predictions. As evidence, he presented a chart supposedly tak-en from a 1988 paper written by Dr. Han-sen and others, which showed a curve of rising temperatures considerably steeper than the trend that has actually taken place.
“In fact, the chart Dr. Michaels showed was a fraud—that is, it wasn’t what Dr. Hansen actually predicted. The original paper showed a range of possibilities, and the actual rise in temperature has fallen squarely in the middle of that range. So how did Dr. Michaels make it seem as if Dr. Hansen’s prediction was wildly off? Why, he erased all the lower curves, leaving only the curve that the original paper described as being ‘on the high side of reality.’“
Does the honor system apply to the faculty at the University of Virginia, or just the students?
Charlottesville
The editor replies: UVA’s honor code does not apply to faculty, only students.
CORRECTIONS
In two stories in last week’s Government News [The Week, June 13], Albemarle County Board of Super-visors member David Slutzky’s last name was misspelled.
In the June issue of ABODE, a photo caption on page
25 implied that the house pictured could be a stu-dent rental. In fact, it is owner-occupied. We regret any confusion.
mailbag@c-ville.com OR
C-VILLE Weekly
106 E. Main St.
Charlottesville, VA 22902
Letters to the editor should be exclusive to C-VILLE Weekly and may pertain to content that we have published. Letters are not to exceed 400 words and may be edited for clarity and length. We accept letters via post or e-mail. To be published, letters must be signed. Please include a phone number for verification.