[ LETTER ] from Bruce Higgins, Climate Change Letter Writer in Flagstaff, Arizona

[ LETTER TO EDITOR of the Taipei Times in Taiwan in Asia from a letter writer in Arizona state USA who is not a regular reader of the newspaper since he does not live in the country but in this day and age of Internet Time and Internet Access, a print newspaper with a web address and a good news website becomes an international newspaper, and readers anywhere in the world can find articles about issues that interest them via Google searches and RSS feeds, and that is probably how this letter to the editor of a far away newspaper came to be -- and came to be published in the print edition of that newspaper today, too. Long live the Internet, for better or worse, 'til death do us part...]



Dec 24, 3009

Credibility challenged

Dear Editor of the Taipei Times:

Visiting German Professor Bruno Walther in Taipei makes several ad hominem attacks on Danish global warming denialist Bjorn Lomborg in his opinion piece (“Global economy must be rebuilt,” Dec. 21 issue). One of these borders on dishonesty and deserves a challenge, going directly to Walther’s own credibility. He states: “The Danish Committees on Scientific Dishonesty (DCSD) showed that [a book Lomborg authored] contained deliberately misleading, biased and fabricated data, flawed statistics and misrepresented conclusions, and was thus a clear case of scientific dishonesty contrary to the standards of good scientific practice (www.lomborg-errors.dk).” Note the url address of Walther’s source.

What Dr Walther did not say was that the DCSD report was withdrawn after the committee itself was found to have not documented the very review they supposedly conducted by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Denmark. Further, the ministry found the DCSD’s work to be “dissatisfactory,” “completely void of argumentation,” “open to criticism” and “emotional.”

The DCSD was given an opportunity to redo their work but declined to do so.

Surely Dr Walther knows this, since the action was taken in 2003.

Sincerely,

BRUCE HIGGINS
Flagstaff, Arizona
This letter has been viewed 123,256, 274 times.

Bruce Higgins
Owner, Paradigm Planning Resources, LLC
Flagstaff, Arizona Area
Education BS Forest Management & Recreation
3 connections Industry Renewables & Environment


Mr Higgins then writes to a blog in Taiwan saying:

I am the 'Bruce Higgins' who wrote that letter in the Taipei Times.

The ironic thing to me is that, after all the poison spewed by Dr. Walther (and in my view entirely contrary to what people playing on their credentials as PhDs should do), he ends up supporting a central proposal Lomborg has made.

I see others heading this way, as well, after Copenhagen, but my guess is that those who profess most ardently about saving the planet will loose interest in the dirty, mundane (and less expensive) tasks of actually raising the lot of humanity. Much of this movement seems to be fueled by 'joiners' who may not really have any thoughts of their own about the cause, but feel a great hunger for life to matter.

And, as Phil Jones often wrote, "Cheers."

Bruce