Bill's Comments

A couple of months ago, I posted my resignation from the National Geographic Society. The latest issue (the subscription runs until December) arrived while I was out of town this week, and the ideological destruction has gone further than I had supposed.

The cover:

GLOBAL WARNING Bulletins from a Warmer World

Behind the Scenes section:

... As Editor, he [Gilbert M. Grosvenor] set National Georaphic on a new path. It had always entertained and educated it readers; now it challenged them as well. Under Gil the magazine turned a spotlight on the environment and on places in turmoil. At the time, conservative voices at the Society objected to these changes, but the readers didn't and circulation surged.
...

From the Editor:

After a decade as Editor in Chief, I have a pretty good idea which articles will provoke a lot of angry letters. Whenever we publlish stories that challenge widely held beliefs, some readers get mad, and they write to let us know.

Well, we're about to do it again. We're devoting 74 pages of this issue to a three-part series of stories on global climate change, and I'd be willing to bet that we'll get letters from readers who don't believe global climate change is real, and that humans contribute to the problem. Some readers will even terminate their memberships.

Why would I publish articles that make people angry enough to stop subscribing? That's easy. These three stories cover subjects that are too important to ignore. From Antarctica (above)[picture posted with the comment, bk] to Alaska to Bangladesh, a global warming trend is altering habitats, with devastating ecological and economic effects.

So I'm asking you -- even those of you who don't believe the Earth is gettin warmer and that human behavior is a contributing factor -- to turn to page 2. This isn't science fiction or a Hollywood movie. We're not going to show you waves swamping the Statue of Liberty. But we are going to take you all over the world to show you the hard truth as scientists see it. I can live with some canceled memberships. I'd have a harder time looking at myself in the mirror if I didn't bring hou the biggest story in geography today.

Bill Allen [signature, wk]

This is a carefully crafted statement, but it fails to hide the predetermined view that global warming is caused by man. Apparently I wasn't the only one to resign over the "Missing Carbon" issue.

At this point it is only about readership numbers and ideology of a particular sort. I glanced at the headings and pictures for the articles, and it is every bit as bad as I might expect. Doom, gloom, disaster, and its man-caused.

The only mistake I made is, I stayed in too long.