Email I received from Burt Prelutsky regarding my letter

From: BurtPrelutsky@aol.com
Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 18:03:00 EDT


Like you, I hope my editorial in the Valley Vantage will lead to a new age of common sense. But, I'm not betting on it.
Unlike you, I have not swallowed propaganda about global warming. It is possible that the earth is heating up, but why is it that in a very comparable time--the 1970s--the same folks were warning us about the coming Ice Age? And what ever happened to that other bugaboo, acid rain, which we were assured was shortly going to lead to the defoliation of the entire Atlantic coast? You have heard of the Boy Who Cried Wolf, I assume.
When people like Al Gore, who not only ignores his own propaganda, but who is making a fortune off the current panic, talks about scientific consensus, he is indulging in bull tossing. There is no such thing as scientific consensus. Either a thing is provable (such as gravity, the laws of thermodynamics, bread will always fall to the floor butter-side down) or it's not. Real science is not something that is put to a vote. Especially not when so many of those people voting have a stake in the outcome (reputations, grants, peer acceptance, etc).
This is not to suggest that you shouldn't do everything possible in order to conserve energy and improve the earth's environment. This may include, but is certainly not limited to, selling your car and buying rollerskates, turning off all the lights in your house, dismantling your home heating unit and your office a/c.
If you make all these sacrifices for the sake of those little girls on the bus in the Appalachians, those Chinese motorcyclists and, of course, all those polar bears in the Arctic tundra, that you mentioned, both of us will be the better for it. You'll feel better because you'll be very proud about yourself. And I'll feel very good because there'll be more energy for me and mine. Besides, I honestly don't care what happens to the polar bears. And I speak not just for myself, but for baby seals everywhere.

Sincerely, Burt Prelutsky