Adelman on Scienceand Public Policy

Re “The World Doesn’t Get the Science Right,” Commentary, May 8: Ken Adelman’s attempt to make a hero of Ronald Reagan in the same commentary in which he criticizes our country’s absence of an energy policy comes across as monumental hypocrisy. He neglects to mention the program enacted by Jimmy Carter in the late ‘70s to make us independent of Middle East oil by the end of the 20th century through the use of alternative energy. Carter’s program, which had fostered the successful creation of hundreds of new companies at the time, was immediately dumped by the Reagan administration, putting all of these companies out of business and making us even more dependent on imported oil. It was great for the oil industry but a disastrous energy policy decision.

Adelman’s mention of the absence of an energy policy should be looked at in relation to the shortsightedness of Reagan in putting us in the bind we are in today.

Ralph G. Long

Newport Beach

So Adelman thinks we should withdraw from the Kyoto global climate change treaty because “top scientists ... doubt whether the evidence of global warming is conclusive enough to justify action today.” He doesn’t say how many, he doesn’t say who, he doesn’t say what makes them “top.”

Compare this to the April 1993 “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.” It was assembled by the Union of Concerned Scientists. It was signed by 1,670 scientists, including 104 Nobel laureates. It said: “No more than one or a few decades remain ... if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.” And that was nearly a decade ago.

Tad Daley

Los Angeles