Our recent posting by MIT climatologist and NAS member Kerry Emanuel urged NAS to recognize the politicized, disingenuous motives of climate change critics. He counseled us to stick to our core principles and oppose scientifically phony global warming doubters as forthrightly as we’ve opposed ideological obfuscation and anti-intellectualism on other topics. We welcome the advice, but NAS has no official position on the global warming controversy. We are, however, happy to provide a forum for scholars who do take a position, as we did for Professor Emanuel and others who posted their responses to his piece. In that vein, we recommend this article from the Boston Globe last May. It focuses on the AGW debate as it stands between Professor Emanuel and his department colleague Richard Lindzen, a fellow climatologist and probably the most trenchant critic of the AGW thesis. Once in agreement, the two men now face off from opposite sides of the fence.
