To the Editor:
Mr. Warden’s editorial of Aug. 10, “No End in Sight,” set out to support right wing denial of climate change by attacking the premise of rising ocean levels.
He stands shoulder to shoulder with his principle authority “Tom Heller” whose video he recommends. It’s nice to see that Mr. Warden has been doing his in-depth research except that Tom Heller is actually Tony Heller who doesn’t need the confusion because he already has another name, Steve Goddard.
His scientific renown can be judged by his “birther” claims against Barack Obama and his tweets showing snow in the Puget Sound area as proof against global warming. He also tweets quotes such as, “I saw the (alleged) women at the #Women’s March on Washington. America would be a much more intelligent and attractive country if they left.” (Feb. 7, 2017)
Also cited by Mr. Warden is Heller/Goddard’s convoluted graph-tampering theory trying to wring a conspiracy out of the scientific community when their whole point has been confirmed by our satellites — the oceans are rising and at an increasing rate. They do so for two heat related reasons…ice melt and water expands as it warms.
Mr. Warden also tries to debunk the idea of increased forest fires by referencing a U.S. Forest Service study that ended in 2019. He’d do well to update his data by talking to burned-out residents in California, New Mexico and other areas of our West who have lost all they have to unprecedented vast and destructive forest fires.
Now all this may seem like just a tempest in a scientific teacup, but we make our points simply to show how vulnerable we can be to misinformation. We’re sure may people nodded approval at first reading of Mr. Warden’s article and this shows just how dangerous tailored false claims can be.
We are awash in it.
The teacup of this particular issue is, in fact, overflowing. Instead of drawing the battlefront of our national divide along political lines, and then trying to manufacture confirmation from suspect sources we might do better to fair-mindedly separate what’s true from what we only want to be true.
Otherwise, our dysfunction as a nation shows no end in sight.
Gasconade County Democrat Committee, gasconadedems.org
