STARK RAVING MAD

• The Sierra club is now screeching that the "Bogus Petition Project'' has been "exposed'' - mostly on the basis of Raymond Pierre-humbert's remarks. Pierrehumbert turns out to be the author of no less than 332 epistles of wisdom catalogued by the Deja News Internet service. There we learn that he opposes: sport utility vehicles, currently installed refrigeration, incandescent lights, short and medium-distance air travel, nuclear power, strategic defense, logging, private gun ownership, and fuel-bearing transport. He says that, "On balance, the US doesn't produce ANY [his caps] of the world's goods. We are a net importer of other peoples' goods. Can you say 'trade deficit.' Therefore, I propose that a large fraction of China's CO2 emissions should be attributed to the US, in the Kyoto discussions. Japan's too.''

Pierrehumbert also opposes farming: "It makes little difference if you pave over an ecosystem with corn instead of concrete, but you can pave a lot more with corn a lot faster.'' He proposes that people be moved into dense city environments because suburban living requires more energy. He also favors population reduction, and has proposed, in his words, "a huge tax on energy.'' A member of the Union of Concerned Scientists' "Sound Science Initiative,'' Pierrehumbert displayed his scientific acumen to one hapless Internet user who wrote "Sorry no formulae. Just a simple observation that warm water evaporates faster than cold water.'' Pierrehumbert's reply: "But it doesn't!'' Then after describing a contrived scenario in which the warm water is covered with water-saturated air and the cold water is not, he finishes with the flourish: "You ought to go away and learn some physics and stop making a fool of yourself. Come back to the card table when you've got the ante.''

This worthy is the principal "scientist'' that Science magazine and the Sierra Club are quoting in their campaign against the Petition Project. They apparently could not find anyone better.