Wilson should have checked Skeptics Society before column

To the editor,

Thanks to Larry Wilson for using his column to nurture the free flow of ideas that has made this country great.

In that spirit, I would like to address the comment with which Wilson began his Dec. 25 column — namely, “October and November were so warm and dry that even a member of the Skeptics Society would begin to believe in global warming.”

First, members of the skeptics community have almost unanimously come to the conclusion that the planet is getting warmer, most likely as the result of human activity. In fact, a recent issue of

Skeptic magazine (published by the Skeptics Society) had several articles addressing the viability of alternative fuels and other means of mitigating global warming. Second, studies of climate change largely focus on longer-term phenomena, such as the melting of the polar ice caps and the rate at which glaciers are receding, rather than on anomalous weather events, such as a warm, dry November or a record-high temperature.

Skeptics are folks whose view of the physical world is based on verifiable evidence. For example, skeptics are not Holocaust or moon-landing deniers. They have no doubt that men have walked on the moon. But, for lack of evidence, they have yet to be convinced of the existence of extraterrestrial beings or Bigfoot, or that ?psychic mediums? can talk to the dead (or rather, that the dead can talk back).

Before writing his column, Wilson could have checked his facts by Googling Skeptics Society? or, not having done so, he could have chosen not to mention the Skeptics Society at all.

Happy New Year to all!

Richard E. Wackrow

Polebridge