University of Oregon braintrust weighs in

Hoffman: A Global farce? - Oregon Daily Emerald

A number of researchers say that despite public opinion, global warming may be a result of natural causes
---
A number of University of Oregon professors appear personally affronted when presented with the suggestion that climate change is a naturally occurring phenomenon. History professor Matthew Dennis, a member of the environmental studies department, said, "I think most people wouldn't take that view on campus."

Dennis said questioning scientific information is helpful and useful because skepticism is part of the academic process. "If we hear these truths espoused," he said, "what academics are trained to do is question that."

However, Dennis said the questioning can go too far, and implied that it had done so in the case of global warming skepticism. "Some sides have been heard enough," he said. "After a while it's just perverse."

Geography professor Patrick Bartlein said, "That's just preposterous," and added, "How do I explain the Earth's not flat?" He said he has no doubt whatsoever that the climate is changing and that humans are the culprits.

University law professor Mary Wood said, "There's just no real debate anymore." She called questioning the cause of global warming a "dangerous distraction."

Wood said it is no longer useful to continue re-hashing this issue, which she thinks has been decided. "The scientific and governmental community has moved on and now the question is, can we cut our carbon in time to avoid dangerous climate thresholds?"

Chris Stratton, a University master's candidate in architecture and environmental studies, agrees that the debate is over. "It's like giving equal time to two theories about evolution, one of which speculates that an enormous spaghetti monster created us all, and one that speculates that evolution occurs through natural selection," he wrote in an e-mail.

In a lecture on journalism bias, University media ethics professor Tom Bivins told a lecture hall full of more than 100 students that a continuation of the global warming debate is an example of "fairness bias" in the media and an ethical issue. Fairness bias is when a journalist presents two sides to an issue when the overwhelming majority of society has already agreed on a solution to the debate. As far as Bivins' lecture is concerned, presenting two sides to the global warming debate is a prime example of this kind of unethical bias.

Emerald lacks objective look at global warming - Opinion

When Ms. Hoffman and Ms. Chase seek journalism careers after graduation, I hope they will show the courage of their convictions and proudly sport this example of their work to potential employers. Time will tell how the world will view this kind of a story, written at the end of 2008. My guess, though, is that such work will be lumped, if it isn't already, with those that hung on to such theories as "tobacco doesn't cause cancer," "the Holocaust never happened," and "some races are intellectually superior to others." I find the denial of human-caused global warming just as offensive.

Tim Ream School of Law 2010