Letters to the Editor: Why did a climate researcher set off a denialist firestorm?

To the editor: Your article on a climate change research paper author saying he withheld information in order to get published in the journal Nature omits one very important piece of background — the Breakthrough Institute, where that author is co-director of climate and energy, is well-known in the environmental community as a deliberately provocative climate contrarian.

The group doesn’t deny that global warming is real, but it supports nuclear power, fracking for natural gas and in general more adaptation to climate change, as opposed to completely stopping the use of fossil fuels.

The author of the paper may indeed have intended to start an academic debate, but the real-world result (as your article reported) is to give right-wing climate change deniers “evidence” that the climate crisis is overblown.

Bill Walker, Modesto