“When is a scientific question settled to the point that entertaining further debate becomes not only a waste of precious newsprint but also a diversion from finding a solution to the problems raised by the answer to the question?” So wrote Arizona Daily Sun Editor Randy Wilson, as he told readers he would no longer publish opposition opinions on human-caused climate change.
Randy Wilson, editor of the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff recently told readers human-caused climate change was settled science and will no longer publish opposing views (lee.net)
Indirectly, this is why my wife and I put Flagstaff in our rear view mirror in 2005, after residing there for four years. We had decided to move to the cool pines community when I retired after living in Phoenix for 33 years.
With an interest in community relations, I began attending regular community meetings at the Daily Sun at the invitation of Wilson, who was interested in hearing the pulse of the city. While I felt he leaned left as most newsmen do, he heard both sides of issues.
My wife used her degree in accounting and extensive institutional financial experience to successfully rescue the school district from a fiscal mess; a record that led to a successful run for a position on the school board and eventually its presidency.
I made an unsuccessful run for a spot on the city council. Although I had developed a record of community service in Phoenix, primarily addressing health care and children’s issues, my conservative opinions on issues facing Flagstaff fell on deaf ears. Community leftists picketed my neighborhood with signs labeling me a “crook.”
While we left Flagstaff years before Wilson’s position on climate change, the far left atmosphere of the community weighed heavily on our decision to move on. A number of our friends there were part time summer residents, who could easily ignore the political animus.
During our recent return to visit friends in Flagstaff, it was interesting to note the community continues to be dealing with some of the same issues – affordable housing, forest thinning and the spotted owl.
Picking up the Daily Sun, I found it interesting how Wilson was able to work his global warming scare into his by-lined piece on school scores. Yes, school scores.
Remote Sensing Systems’ satellite-based monthly global mean temperature change, September 1996 to June 2014
While explaining how reporters attempt to tell their story using numbers, he wrote that the general public has difficulty in calculating risk from them. Incredibly, Wilson chose to use a risk analogy comparison of being done in by a 2-ton Great White shark and global warming. If the public did, Wilson wrote, “they’d insist that global warming appear on the front page every day – it’s the 2-degree rise in the temperature of the planet that will do us in …”
Wilson says his is “a university town with an environmental IQ far above average,” where climate change deniers are unwilling to stick their heads up. As most of those so-called environmentally superior academicians, whose livelihood depends largely on government research grants, generally have their heads in the sand on this issue, why bother?
It’s difficult to get a straight answer on Northern Arizona University SAT scores. One source indicated the average was 940-1170; another claimed 525 verbal and 530 math for a 1055. It might shock Wilson to learn that George W. Bush’s SATs of 566 verbal and 640 math for a 1206 translated to a 124 IQ
Wilson is a denier in his own right, telling those with other opinions to “save our breath and get on with saving the planet.” He calls this journalism.
