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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">For the life of me, I can not figure
out why some people have a hard time determining what is real and
what isn't. It is as if they had to go to Google Maps, look up their
own address, and then check the Google photo to see what it looked
like. Whatever happened to walking outside and turning around? </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">We seem so willing to accept other's
interpretation of things rather than developing our own powers of
observation. We heari the echo Grouch Marx's “Who are you going to
believe, me or your lying eyes? ” </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Some issues present such a challenge to
a person's world view that it is much easier, ever comfortable, to
close your eyes accept only those authorities that reinforce your
mental picture of reality. Such seems to be the case with climate. It
is a subject where myth prevails no matter how many time the
myth's are disproved. Myths fly around the internet from blog post to
blog post, each one referencing an earlier version as it's authority.
Even the often cited list of “650 scientists who oppose global
warming” is itself a lie, made up by someone, spread by your tax
money through the offices of Senator Inhofe and now possessing
mythical qualities. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Trace backwards, clicking on link after
link you will find one that references a page or a web site that no
longer exists and the Ah ha moment. “They” have had it taken
down to hide the truth. I never learned who “they” were but
they have to have been really active. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The poet, Wallace Stevens, wrote that
“<span style="font-style: normal;">The imagination is man's power
over nature.” </span>Maybe that is what is at work here, our
imaginations creating a world the way that we want it to be rather
than looking at the world that is and seeing it in all its wonder. Why
would we only experience the glories of PBS's Nature when nature
is all around us or consider the environment only when we see some
plastic washed up on the beach at Pescadero rather than every time we
take a breath, no matter where we are. <span
style="font-style: normal;">
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">This refusal to
look at the world as it really is becomes a great concern when it
governs the acts of a person of power and influence. Such, it seems,
is the case with George Will who is now involved in a controversy
over his recent columns on climate change and whether it is due to
the actions of man. Will's columns, first published in the
Washington Post are echoed in hundreds of other papers around the
country including the San Jose Mercury News. As such, they are read,
discussed and become themselves the authority for another cycle of
myths that perpetuate his, and our failures. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">I am sure that Will
did not do all of this himself. He has a staff of researchers who,
knowing what the Great Man wants to say, find for him the references
to back up those assertions. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">You would have
hoped that the Washington Post would have had the courage to admit a
mistake and to correct the factual errors in Will's column. However,
they did not, deferring to Will and Will's staff who did the fact
checking and validation of sources for him and so absolve all of
editorial responsibility. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">It has fallen to
others to show just how far Will's imagination has carried him. Andrew
Revkin in the NY Times reported that Will was factually wrong
in his description of the current condition of the Arctic ice-pack
and that was a key justification for Will's piece. Chris Mooney, a
reputable science journalist and author of three books on the
subject, has submitted a factual rebuttal Will's February 16 column to
the Post. I expect their non-publication, since it would not do
to anger the Great Man. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Journalism is
failing at science.. CNN laid off their entire staff of science
journalists. NBC took over the Weather Channel and then laid off
their entire climate team. The Mercury News has one of California's
best environmental reporters working other subjects at a time when we
are facing connected crises in both climate and water management.
They are being replaced by a he said, she said style of writing that
easily equates fact and fiction if they express differing viewpoints.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal;">Print journalism
gives us an opportunity to have the time to reflect and consider big
issues. When they begin to fail their duty to differentiate fact
from opinion as did the Post, they fail us all and none more than our
our descendants whose very life depends on our making good decision.
We need good journalists, good editors and organizations willing to
make the effort to get the facts right.</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="80">--
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente
Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.refpub.com/">http://www.refpub.com/</a> -- Tel: 408.778.3024</pre>
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