Cooperative Living January 2016 - 7

LETTER INTEMPERATE IN TONE,
SHORT ON FACTS
I always enjoy Cooperative Living with
its diversity of articles and useful
information. From time to time I question
the editorial judgment in the Mailbag
segment. The letter in the November/
December issue railing against the EPA
regulations and referring to " the climate
change myth " and the " federal
government using tyranny to control
electric cooperatives " is intemperate in
tone and rather short on facts.
I have no objection to printing the
letter as diversity of opinion is always
welcome. My concern is that the editors
did not either footnote the letter or obtain
the input of the scientific community to
the effect that the vast array of scientific
opinion is that climate change is not a
myth. The coal industry would have to
invest in clean coal techniques that will
raise prices, but the health benefits vastly
outweigh these costs.
In short, there is a need for balance
when the magazine lends its pages to
highly controversial subjects in which
there are strong factual arguments on the
other side.
- Alfred P. Van Huyck, Round Hill
LETTER CHOCK FULL
OF MISCONCEPTIONS
In your November/December issue,
you published a letter so chock full of theearth-is-flat
misconceptions that I am
writing not to dispute the letter itself but
to question why Cooperative Living would
give space to such a
misguided and
misinformed letter on
its pages.
I am referring to the
letter that expresses
outrage at the way the
" false science " behind
" climate-change
myths " is being used as
a " tyranny to control
electric cooperatives. "
Over 99 percent of
scientists, all over the
world, who know the
most about the earth's
climate system are
agreed about the
scientific validity of the
problem of man-made
climate disruption (and
never in history has
there been a scientific
" hoax " of anything like
this magnitude); 13 of
the hottest 15 years on
record have all been
since the year 2000; it
is well-established that
HistoryMystery
The theme for this
year's column is " Famous
People Born in Virginia. "
Submit your guess as to
the identity of the person
pictured in writing,
along with your name,
address and phone
number, via mail to
History Mystery, c/o
Cooperative Living, P.O.
Box 2340, Glen Allen,
VA 23058-2340 or
guess online at
www.co-opliving.com
under " Contests. " The
deadline for this month's
entries is Jan. 20, 2016.
Correct entries will be
placed in a drawing
and the winner
announced in the
March/April 2016 issue.
The winner will receive
a check for $25. 
the impetus behind climate-change
denial comes from a deliberate attempt
to deceive the public and prevent action
to meet this challenge - a campaign
funded by the fossil fuel companies; one
would think that responsible citizens and
organizations would want for us to get
beyond the falsehoods contained in that
letter, and move our discussion toward
the question of how best to meet this
major challenge.
Indeed, some major publications have
adopted the policy of refusing to publish
such demonstrable falsehoods. The Los
Angeles Times, for example, decided on
that course, declaring that, " Saying
'there's no sign humans have caused
climate change' is not stating an opinion,
it's asserting a factual inaccuracy. "
But Cooperative Living has been
publishing these science-denying
messages regularly for years. Why? Do
you publish every single letter you get,
without exercising any editorial
discretion?
One might reasonably suspect that
the way you have consistently provided a
www.co-opliving.com
 DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?
The October
2015 History
Mystery was
the Mount
Jackson
Confederate
Cemetery.
Reader Danny
Lindamood of
Edinburg was
our $25
winner. Good
work, Danny!
forum for these messages is connected
with your own strong connection with
the fossil fuel world. Is that the reason?
It is understandable that a company
would want to protect its short-term
profits. But, when the overwhelming
body of evidence suggests that the wellbeing
of our children and grandchildren
depends upon our acting responsibly
now, one would hope that such a sense
of responsibility will outweigh the power
of corporate greed in a publication like
Cooperative Living.
- Andy Schmookler, Broadway
COAL PLANTS ARE AGING
In response to the November/
December Mailbag letter, " EPA Pushes
Control through Regulation, " first, the
demise of coal is due in large part to the
aging of the coal power plants, the
median age of which is about 50 years
and which are being replaced by natural
gas plants, which are more efficient and
economical. Virginia Dominion Power
has two coal plants (Glen Lyn Plant and
continued on pg. 6
January 2016 | Cooperative Living | 5
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Cooperative Living January 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living January 2016
