Leg-pull or gaffe
Sir: I don't think that Auberon Waugh is subtle enough to be pulling our legs in pro- claiming portentously that 'carbon dioxide is produced by vegetation' (Another voice, 13 June). I think he actually believes it and is too lazy to look it up. Recently, in anoth- er organ, he made a similar gaffe about the
`This isn't at all what I expected.'
ice-cap melting.
We can all make howlers, and they can quickly be forgiven. However, I think that Auberon Waugh makes a point of glorying in his scientific ignorance. This is becoming quite a fashion. George Walden sounded off recently in an anti-science diatribe not far short of hysteria.
The point to be borne in mind by this duo, and their like, is that such wilful obscurantism seriously undermines their credibility in everything else they write, which is a pity, as they are capable of pro- ducing flashes of intelligence.
P.T.A. Marlowe
66 South Street, Chichester, West Sussex
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