Is columnist M.D. Harmon a racketeer? Probably not, but he has written a large number of recent pieces supporting the climate change denial cause. His latest appeared on a recent Friday (“The rise of ‘virtue signaling,'” March 18).

In it, he engages in flim-flam by portraying self-interested lies as identical to the sort of protected-by-the-First-Amendment activity typified by this letter.

Mr. Harmon’s obfuscations are about public inquiries as to whether fossil-fuel producers can be charged criminally because of their involvement in the dirty little cottage industry of denial, much in the way cigarette makers were finally brought to heel.

Fossil fuel industry people have known about global warming since the 1970s, and have created the denial industry in response. It’s been going on long enough by now that industry insiders may have actually accepted their own data manipulations and creations as articles of mercenary faith. But it is still rooted in fraud.

Whatever their feelings about warming and its human cause, fossil fuel people understand that when the idea of warming is widely enough accepted, it will necessitate a massive public response, quite possibly stranding petroleum, coal, gas and assets.

And that’s why fossil fuel money is behind the proliferation of institutions that support denial.

Fact is, the insights we gain from studying and investigating the natural sciences are true whether or not anyone believes or likes them.

James Silin

Whitefield