I read with interest your selected global warming opinion piece (Feb. 12) which featured quotations from Timothy Ball, a self-proclaimed expert on global warming. He disputes the work of the thousands of distinguished scientists who have collectively contributed to the findings of the IPCC. Apparently, Ball is yet another fake scientist who is at least in part funded by the oil industry.

Please recognize that although it is good to represent both sides of an issue, there comes a time when to give voice to the one or two skeptics can be a disservice to society and in fact can be considered promulgation of a lie. When this lie may cause great harm, as global warming will, then this may even be considered a criminal act.

The solution is to give equal voice. This means that you should consider the research that is available from all peer reviewed sources, and then choose to feature articles by contributors in proportion.

The IPCC reports constitute perhaps the most thoroughly reviewed and documented findings in the history of man. For those readers who are interested in getting to the facts but are not technically inclined, another good source of information is the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Ralph Silberstein

Grass Valley