Madam, - It is almost beyond belief that Charles Krauthammer, a former science adviser to President Carter, can describe the consensus opinion of literally thousands of the world's top scientists from numerous disciplines working consistently and without pay over the past 20 years as "speculation" by "compliant scientists" (Opinion, June 2nd).
Can he have read any of the four reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and is he familiar with the modus operandi of the IPCC?
It is difficult not to accuse Mr Krauthammer himself of arrogance if he expects us to favour his "instinct" against their considered consensus, which many would claim is actually too conservative. If he has indeed read any of the reports he must know that the homeostatic mechanisms - sunspot activity, ocean currents, clouds etc - have all been considered in depth by the appropriate specialists.
His advocacy of nuclear power as a solution to our problems further illustrates his lack of knowledge about the problems surrounding that industry. I suspect his stance on these issues has more to do with his well-known support for the US maintaining its global dominance in the pursuit of the democratisation of the world than with science.
It is reported that even one of his former neo-conservative colleagues, Francis Fukuyama, has written that Mr Krauthammer has become "strangely disconnected from reality". Perhaps he should return to his roots in psychiatry before it is too late! - Yours, etc,
Dr PHILIP MICHAEL,
Chair, Irish Doctors Environmental Association,
Bandon,
Co Cork.