Sarah Palin's Bogus Climate Arguments Graduate From Facebook to the Washington Post

Last week, I pointed to a Facebook post by Sarah Palin that was just bonkers about climate change and "ClimateGate." And I linked to a thorough refutation of it, by Adam Siegel. This post is simply to say that despite Siegel's Herculean efforts, essentially the same item now turns up as an op-ed in The Washington Post. I'm sure Carl Zimmer will have much to say about fact-checking and the Post's op-ed page; but hey, it's just presenting the "other side" on climate change, right? I mean, so what if Sarah Palin asserts that the current warming is just part of a natural cycle, or confuses climate with weather--showing not only ignorance of basic climate science, but embracing positions quite contrary to accepted scientific knowledge. So what--because Republicans need their science too, and op-ed pages exist to let all sides to articulate their point of view--to say what they want to say and what they deeply feel, and do their best to attract lots of fans. Just like Facebook does.