To the Editor:  
    I’m always amazed at the ability of some people to ignore simple facts.
    I recently wrote that, “31,000 scientists have recently signed a petition rejecting human-made global warming…” A week later, a writer spent 600 words questioning that fact, stating, “there are NOT 31,000 scientists who have “recently” signed a petition rejecting man made global warming!”  
    Sorry, but there are. The scientist’s credentials are verified, and those who don’t meet the criterion are thrown out. What I wrote is perfectly true.  
    He then defames the organizer of the petition and the scientists who signed it. Then, he opines that while I might have a degree in science, I wasn’t an expert in global-warming. 
     It’s a classic leftist ploy. Incapable of competing in the arena of ideas, attack the writer instead. Failing that, target one fact among many, and then denigrate the source of the fact.
    Don’t debate the message, obfuscate instead.  
    The writer is correct about two things: I do have a degree in Chemistry and I’m not an expert in global warming. But I do know enough about science to know that global warming is a theory and not a fact. Yet the United Nations and an over-zealous media desperately try to pretend that it is.   I’d rather listen to the courageous scientists who are looking at data instead of polls.
    And the most recent data says the world is getting colder, not warmer.  
    Which was the obvious point of my brief article. It’s absolutely nuts to destroy our ailing economy to fix a problem that we haven’t proved is really happening; or if it is, that mankind can possibly stop; or if we could, that the US could stop all by itself while India and China keep polluting all they want.  
    Don’t get me wrong, we do need to protect our environment. Republican Teddy Roosevelt was the first conservationist. Companies are rightfully going “Green” in order to attract new customers. Green technologies have the potential to enhance life for everyone, and should be followed when economically feasible.  
    But this silly idea that we must create a massive tax to save the world from global warming is preposterous. It’s a false argument based on incomplete theory.   
    Bottom line, “Cap and Tax” is an egregious power grab. It creates a huge “middleman” bureaucracy that will make everything more expensive. Worse, it will hurt the poor more than the rich.    
Dave Belton
Buckhead Via e-mail