Mann responds to 'attack on credibility'

Friday, a My Turn column suggested that my weekly columns are based upon material that is “not based on science” and the information is “plagiarized.”

According to the reader, “With a little research I’ve found that Randy Mann’s opinions are not based in science. They are based in the musings of internet propagandists with political agendas. By misrepresenting the findings of scientific literature, disregarding the effects of CO2, and by plagiarizing others’ work, Mann’s columns are dishonestly and lazily crafted to cast doubt on the role human activity is having on the well-documented warming that our planet is undergoing.”

Everyone has their own opinion and is entitled to it. However, I do take strong offense to the attack on my credibility that I am plagiarizing information to forward some kind of agenda.

The intention of my columns is to present weather- and climate-related features to inform, entertain and promote discussions with the readers. Different views are presented for this purpose and I cite sources, which were mentioned in my articles. Other information provided in many of my columns is based upon scientific government data which I have written about over the past 30-plus years.

I have written on many occasions in other articles that I DO believe that human activities of pollution and the burning of fossil fuels are making conditions worse for Planet Earth, which includes CO2 emissions. I do not deny that our planet has been warming, especially since the 1970s.

However, based on my own research and study, despite all of the “scientific literature,” I do not think that human activities are 100 percent responsible for climate change. In my opinion, there are too many other variables like solar activity, long and short term climate cycles, ocean circulations and other factors that may be playing a role.

I have no political agenda and as such, the majority of my articles feature local long-range forecasts which I specialize in and other subjects that do not relate to climate change.

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Randy Mann is a meteorologist, columnist and this newspaper’s “weather mann.”