Arguments ignore climate experts

To the editor

Shame on you for reprinting propaganda masquerading as serious academic debate about global warming. This is the same disproven, pseudoscientific argument Exxon/Mobil has been paying lobbyists to promulgate for years.

Tom Harris, the author, is credited as a mechanical engineer working for a "public affairs and public policy company." A lobbyist? A Google search reveals his employer, High Park Group, no longer maintains an active Web site. Cached pages about this firm list an attorney as president -- another lawyer specializing in energy legislation -- and Mr. Harris with a master's of engineering from McMaster University. No environmental scientists on staff. No clients listed.

For climate experts Harris quotes unknown academics from unheard-of institutions. Yet Mr. Harris disregards the thousands of highly qualified scientists who believe global warming is a real and present concern.

The Joint Science Academies' statement on a global response to climate change states: "There is now strong evidence that significant global warming is occurring. ... most ... can be attributed to human activities. ... The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action." And so on.

What's not widely reported is that Exxon has invested over $15 million in lobby groups who spread disinformation about the effects of fossil fuel emissions.

Do we really need science or business to tell us that continued pollution of our air, water and ecosystem is not in the public interest?

CHRIS D. MOORE, Cape Girardeau