The Los Angeles Times will no longer publish letters to the editor that question whether humans are responsible for global warming, Paul Thornton, the editor of the letters section, revealed on Tuesday.
"Saying ‘there's no sign humans have caused climate change’ is not stating an opinion, it's asserting a factual inaccuracy," Thornton wrote, and hence letters that do so will not be published.
As for letters on climate change, we do get plenty from those who deny global warming. And to say they "deny" it might be an understatement: Many say climate change is a hoax, a scheme by liberals to curtail personal freedom.
Before going into some detail about why these letters don't make it into our pages, I'll concede that, aside from my easily passing the Advanced Placement biology exam in high school, my science credentials are lacking. I'm no expert when it comes to our planet's complex climate processes or any scientific field. Consequently, when deciding which letters should run among hundreds on such weighty matters as climate change, I must rely on the experts -- in other words, those scientists with advanced degrees who undertake tedious research and rigorous peer review.
And those scientists have provided ample evidence that human activity is indeed linked to climate change. Just last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—a body made up of the world's top climate scientists—said it was 95 percent certain that we fossil-fuel-burning humans are driving global warming. The debate right now isn't whether this evidence exists (clearly, it does) but what this evidence means for us.