“What did we miss?” — Open Letter to the Editor of The New York Times
Posted on July 23, 2026
I view the entire climate issue as completely unsustainable; the collective thing is based on disinformation, from the notion that the ‘science is settled’ about deadly catastrophic man-caused global warming, to the feeling that ‘Exxon knew that but instead created disinformation campaigns to deceive the public about what they knew.’ It’s like viewing a crumbling building with spreading cracks and wondering how soon the whole thing goes down, or like a topped dam where it’s a wonder it hasn’t collapsed yet. Or perhaps it’s akin to how Titanic builder Thomas Andrews must have felt upon fully comprehending the situation in front of him in the remaining minutes of April 14, 1912 – things are still nearly level at the moment, but it’s purely a matter of time when the existing damage starts bringing in fatal amounts of accumulation that cannot be stopped. The climate issue will sink, it is a mathematical certainty. The self-inflected damage was actually done long ago to seal its fate, when its arrogant pushers decided to use character assassination and disinformation as a tactic to counter critics while hoping nobody would question that maneuver.
I just don’t yet know which ‘iceberg’ incident will be the one to begin the process of sending the issue to the bottom. Meanwhile, I try to give that iceberg a nudge toward this looming colossus recklessly speeding straight toward its inevitable doom.
Upon reading Washington Free Beacon journalist Ira Stoll’s July 9th report about New York Times editor Joe Kahn himself revealing how there’s a need at the NYT for “skeptical editors, including those on the political right, who ask ‘what are we missing here?‘, I wanted to hear that interview in its full context. Was editor Kahn serious? The interview was by someone named Peter Kafka, and sure enough, editor Khan said pretty much that. So, I immediately penned the following to him, it’s verbatim here, including the way I fully spelled out my clickable links:
https://gelbspanfiles.com/?p=20133
