The kind of letter editors probably wish they received more often

Perhaps it's a good thing I woke up so damn early this morning (5 AM? Aie aie aie ...), for it allowed me to come across a mention of this letter to the editor of the NY Times. I think it's hard to argue with this guy when he's just so bloody right.

To the Editor:

Re “When Our Brains Short-Circuit,” by Nicholas D. Kristof (column, July 2):

The reason humans respond to immediate threats more readily than future threats like global warming relates more to their poor understanding of science than neurons in their brain.

Science education in the United States is so poor that most citizens are incapable of understanding basic scientific theories like evolution. As a result, pundits and talk show hosts can easily persuade the average listener that global warming is a hoax while offering little or no evidence.

If these same people took the time to read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on global warming, they would see that the evidence is overwhelming.

Fred Posey
Canfield, Ohio, July 2, 2009

The writer is an adjunct professor in the science and math department of Edison State College in Fort Myers, Fla.

I would say that the way the brain works isn't perhaps as irrelevent as Prof. Posey makes it sound like; we've still yet to discover many of the secrets of our minds and how they process information relevant to our survival and well-being. But his overall point regarding the state of education, particularly scientific education, in the US is incontrovertibly dead-on. I bet editors wish they received more sensible and educated (not to mention coherent) letters like this one as opposed to the myriads of complaints, screeds and general crap they tend to get instead.