HOW I agree with those who assert that individuals rejecting the claims of an overwhelming body of experts regarding recent exceptional climate change and the considerable human factor believed to be involved, should receive far less airtime.
Apart from the fact that such detractors are doing their literal and figurative descendants no favours whatsoever, the presumed policy of balance of course gives rise to grotesque imbalance.
Whenever a solitary sailor circumnavigates the globe, a representative of the Flat Earth Society, or whatever, is rarely invited to argue the unfeasibility of such an exploit. Whenever Nazi atrocities are discussed, holocaust deniers are not usually asked to put in their pennyworth.
I am most emphatically not suggesting that, in a still fairly free society, fools and knaves should have no voice – but merely that it should be proportionate to the facts – or high likelihood – of the matter and an appropriate context chosen.
David Diment, Riverside Court, Oxford
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