Editor:
    I find Jeff Cole’s citation of Stephen Schneider interesting in that it gives the impression that science is about personal belief and bias.  As I described in a previous letter to the editor, the mechanism (though not the effects) of global warming is well understood, has been thoroughly peer-reviewed (over several decades) and isn’t even that complicated.  Cole also cites the American Physical Society’s (APS) News.  As an active member of the APS (the world’s largest professional organization of physicists), I looked up the reference.  Schneider (a biologist) closes with the following: “If the readers of APS News are confused by all this rancor and want a fair and balanced treatment of environmental scientific and policy debates, they can turn to the several National Research Council or IPCC [assessments], in which words like “any,” “all,” “every” and “entirely” are scarce, and citations are quoted or paraphrased in their proper context.”  Should readers of the Kennebunk Post wish to check it out for themselves, here’s the URL: www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/199608/environmental.cfm..
    What angers and quite frankly frightens me (and most scientists for that matter) is the growing trend in which “he who screams loudest must be correct.”  Given the current trend, it wouldn’t be all that far-fetched to expect flat-earthers to make a resurgence (forget the fact that even the ancient Greeks knew the earth was round - and proved it).  As silly as it sounds, questioning one sound scientific result undermines all of science.  For an example of the interconnectedness of such things, consider this.  The same exact science that led to the development of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons (for good or for bad) also explains how stars work and even most aspects of the Big Bang.  If the latter is something you’re not comfortable believing in, then you must not believe that anything bad could happen if a terrorist flies a plane into Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire (note: I have complete faith in the government’s ability to protect Seabrook).
    Unfortunately, something tells me that nothing I say - or demonstrate, for that matter - will change the minds of people such as Jeff Cole.  And that scares me.  Are there scientists who assert that global warming doesn’t exist and the Big Bang didn’t happen?  Sure.  There are always people who disagree.  But these people represent a very, very small percentage of scientists and, in my personal experience, are usually people that have not fully studied the problem or do not understand some of the basic principles behind it.
    Science is not subjective but if people like Jeff Cole succeed in convincing others that it is, then God help us all.

Ian T. Durham, PhD
Kennebunk