Dear Jim,

I would never ever accuse you of being a prophet of doom and gloom, as I
have always found you most cheerful and affable.  The real doom and gloom
merchants these days are the newspaper columnists and the media in general.
When someone predicts that many of us will be living under 10' of water it
get loads of column space and airtime, even though the report falls far
short of being authentic.

A more serious TV programme here in the UK recently told us that over the
last 100 years, average temperature throughout the world had only risen by a
quarter of one degree and earlier records showed that this was within normal
fluctuations.  Commentators are constantly telling us, let us say, 'that
this has been the wettest winter since 1984' but never mention that the past
19 years have been dryer than 1984. We seldom see reports or programmes
that try to get things into perspective, as such reports do not sell
newspapers.

 This does not mean to say that we shouldn't endeavour to be good
conservationists, and  be concerned about our planet like all good shell
collectors, but let us always strive to encourage factual, in depth,
scientific reporting.

Stanley Francis.

Belfast, Northern Ireland.  U.K.

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