No doubt at all on global warming

How do you define journalistic responsibility?

Must a newspaper give equal weight to both sides, regardless of an unequal amount of evidence for each side?

I ask this question in regard to the subject of global warming.

In recent weeks, the Daily Herald has printed opinion pieces by Cal Thomas, Mona Charen, and John Stossel, all questioning the validity of global warming. In the Oct. 28 piece by Stossel, he quotes global warming skeptics and announces that, contrary to what Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may say, "the global warming debate isn't over."

But what Stossel doesn't say is that global warming skeptics receive little or no support in the scientific journals and publications where their work must stand up to peer review.

Stossel also dismisses the IPCC as "not what the public thinks it is," but the truth is this group includes over 2,000 scientists from around the world in what is the largest and most rigorously peer-reviewed scientific collaboration in history. The principles outlining their work are clearly stated on their Web site.

Please, let's not rely on John Stossel for our scientific information. I know life is busy, and global warming is an unpleasant subject, but let's take a little time to research the facts. We owe it to our children to be informed on this issue, to take a thoughtful, honest approach in dealing with it, and not to waste any more time.

It is indeed a moral issue, and it will require a great deal of political will to take it on.

That will not come from a misinformed public.

Janet McDonnell

Arlington Heights