In a piece by Vancouver Province newspaper columnist Alan Ferguson, on March 21, 2006, we have another instance in the worrying trend of ideologically driven opinion writers straying into flat statements of (incorrect) fact – much to the disservice of theirย readers.
In a blissfully fact-free assault on the Kyoto protocol, Ferguson saysย this:
โWell, I’m no scientist I confess, but I can read, and I’m sorry to have to disabuse all those prophets of doom who claim to have evidence that mankind is responsible for its imminent demise in a deadly soup of man-made pollution, with polar bears flopping off melting ice floes.
โIt is true, and nobody disputes it, that throughout the 20th century โ hardly a blink of an eye in eternal time โ the temperature in the northern hemisphere rose. By about 0.6 degrees Centigrade. Bigย deal.
โBut there is absolutely no proof it was due to human activity.โ (Myย emphasis.)
Mr. Ferguson’s assertion that he is no scientist is self-evident. His insistence that he can read is, how shall we say, uproven โ at least to the degree that boasting an ability to read implies that he has actually surveyed the literature. But it’s his willingness to pronounce boldly, baldly and incorrectly on scientific fact that is mostย grating.
โ โฆ absolutely no proofโ? This would come as a suprise to the Royal Society of Canada, the U.S. National Academy of Science, the Science Council of Japan, the Russian Academy of Science, the French, Academie des Science, the Indian National Science Academy, the Chinese Academy of Sciences โฆ it’s quite a long list. And all of these august bodies, full as they are of people who really are scientists, are all satisfied that there is, indeed, proof that climate change is anthropogenic (which, for Mr. Ferguson’s benefit, means that it is caused by humanย activity).
The question for Mr. Ferguson is this: โWhat would you accept as proof? Will the meanderings of a fiction writer (Michael Crichton) or the dissemblings of ExxonMobile-sponsored ‘scientists’ always trump a consensus of the best scientific minds in theย world?โ
The question for Province Editorial Page Editor Jon Ferry is this: โHas the newspaper no responsibility to check facts. Do writers have carte blanche to present any position they please in absolute terms just because their writings appear on an ‘opinion’ย page?โ
For the record, Ferry says that’s an unfair question and insists there is still โa lot of controversyโ about this topic. It’s a disappointing cop-out and one that a little serious research would soonย resolve.
