Lady Justice is blindfolded to ensure equity and justice. Political activists too often seem to have a patch over only one eye. They repeat untruths and exaggerations that work against sensible resolution. Marjorie McCloy ("We should teach students about climate change — the correct way," Dec. 20) appears to be uninformed of the scope and extent of variation of opinion about major drivers of “climate change.” But it's no wonder because of the inequity of what is reported.

Climate has changed since the beginning of time. In the little ice age people skated on the Thames, and crops were not grown in areas that had previously been productive. The Sahara Desert was once lush with vegetation. People farmed in Greenland for 500 years. We find tropical plants in the ice north of the Arctic Circle. When Mount Tambora blew its top in 1815, it caused crop failures throughout the following summer. Krakatoa, in 1883, was similarly disruptive. A caller on Sen. Mike Lee's town hall phone call last week indignantly wondered why politicians do not clean the air in Salt Lake Valley, ignoring that the easy things have already been done and have been helpful. But the valley is a bowl, and unless we quit driving cars and heating our homes, we will have a certain amount of smog.

Climate-change activists think there is some easy way that can be mandated to change the course of climate. They ignore sun activity; Milankovitch cycles, the processes that activate the formation of clouds, including solar wind and cosmic rays; massive volcanic and vegetation decay production of carbon dioxide and particulate, and other factors.

They similarly ignore or are not aware of the power of lynch-mob fervor that is created as the press and political mandate force opinion in the desired direction and the massive rewards of power and enrichment that are sought. They repeat the absolute untruth that 98 percent of climate scientists think man is the major driver of climate change, where they only agree that man contributes in some part. They ignore that research money cannot be secured for alternate answers. They ignore that the dramatic predictions that have come from alarmists have not happened, and computer models are woefully inaccurate. They may not be aware that top-level climate scientists have quit contributing to journals and magazines because the publications are not honest and will not even review important research papers that do not follow the political line.

They do not know that Environmental Protection Agency panels are packed with research money grantees (lawsuits are filed against the process) or that government boards and agencies have been found untrustworthy. They may not have read President Dwight D. Eisenhower's warning as he left office about the power of federal research grants to influence the course of honesty in university research. They may not know of the vile treatment of honest and accurate research that does not match the official mandate. They think weather extremes have somehow only just now been discovered (check records of the 1930s).

The most important component and vast majority of greenhouse gas is water vapor, with carbon dioxide being about 4 percent. Man's contribution to that 4 percent is only about 4 to 5 percent, making only a fraction of a percent of the total. Interpolations and extrapolations can be managed to reach desired conclusions and claimed as facts. We are polluting too much, and new technologies are making positive differences.

And climate is only one of many places where this kind of injustice reigns. Let's keep our heads on straight.

Allan South is a retired chemist and quality auditor.