Concern About Monckton Article

Dear Dr. Marque:

As a longtime APS member and an (admittedly not very active) member of the Forum on Physics and Society, I am writing to express my concern about the article in the July 2008 newsletter by Christopher Monckton. While one can have differing views on whether the newsletter is an appropriate forum for contributions with different perspectives debating the science of climate change, this is not my primary concern. My concern is that now that Monckton’s piece has appeared, an organization that Monckton serves as “chief policy advisor” on has issued a press release, that describes his paper as “a major, peer-reviewed paper” in “a learned journal”. Do you consider your newsletter to be a peer-reviewed learned journal?. (As you are no doubt aware, there have also been other misrepresentations of this paper that have appeared in the media and prompted a response on the APS homepage.)

Frankly, I think that we, in the Forum, have basically been “used” in what is not really a scientific debate but rather a propaganda war. I would ask you, in the strongest possible way, to prevent future misrepresentations of Monckton’s paper and its appearance in our newsletter.

Thank you for your time.

Joel D. Shore
jshore@frontiernet.net
[affiliation withheld upon author’s request]

Editor’s response: The newsletter of the Forum on Physics & Society is not, and never has been, peer-reviewed.

---

This contribution has not been peer refereed. It represents solely the view(s) of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of APS.