Why do you print Alex Pherson’s extremely biased, error-filled pieces? Is he really the best columnist that you guys can find on this campus of 39,000 students? I find that very hard to believe.
Let’s take a look at some of the more egregious elements of Pherson’s latest piece (“Global warming losing steam,” Feb. 18):
He repeatedly conflates the concepts of “weather” and “climate” in an apparent effort to make it appear as if the transient cold spell currently gripping the East Coast somehow has any bearing on the global climate change debate one way or the other (and the Viewpoint staff plays right into this misleading conflation by printing a quarter-page AP photo of a snow-covered White House).
He refers to the hackers who maliciously and illegally breached electronic security at the University of East Anglia as having “stumbled upon” the private e-mails of climate researchers in the Climatic Research Unit there and insinuates that the victims of this crime are not entitled to expect that the perpetrators should be prosecuted, going so far as to label this desire for upholding the law on the part of climate scientist victims as “autocratic”!
Pherson, who to my knowledge has absolutely no background in climate science which would allow him to evaluate the issue in a legitimate manner, accuses climate scientists of “painting a dire scenario about global warming” because it “is far more lucrative than arguing that the Earth will remain more or less stable.” This is a serious accusation that the Daily Bruin should not allow to appear on its pages unless it is backed up with some evidence, of which Pherson provides absolutely none. He off-handedly throws out this bombastic allegation and doesn’t even bother to attempt to back it up with evidence.
Surely Viewpoint can find students with points of view who at least make an honest effort to accurately present the various sides of the debate, rather than using Pherson’s tactics of constructing flimsy straw-men or completely ignoring the possibility of an alternative interpretation of the situation altogether.
Dylan Hirsch-Shell
Graduate neuroscience student