Climate change deniers are a motley collection

Saturday, February 06, 2010

I READ Ryle Dwyer’s confused and misleading column (January 30) with a mounting sense of disbelief that the Irish Examiner continues to behave as if there is a controversy over the reality of climate change.

The truth is that on one side we have virtually 100% of climate scientists and on the other a motley collection of contrarians, conspiracy theorists, oil company shills and irresponsible media commentators.

They fall upon the few pieces of evidence that don’t fill sensible people with terror at what lies ahead as if they are overturning the huge and growing weight of evidence of the trouble we are in.

Of two specific items he mentions, one was a simple typographical error in a report and the other extracted, without context, a couple of stolen paragraphs from unpublished correspondence. As for the IPCC, it didn’t invent climate change and has lagged behind scientific consensus for a decade.

Ryle Dwyer is right to draw our attention to concerns about carbon trading and biofuels, both of which threaten to be more of a problem than a solution.

Nevertheless, to confuse the reality of climate change with the inadequacy of our response to it is to miss the real story: a rookie error in such an experienced commentator.

Kieran O’Connor
Windsor Place
St Luke’s
Cork

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, February 06, 2010