Will: Baseball si, global warming no

Columnist George Will, just announced as the emcee for the Bradley Foundation's gala in DC next month, is a Renaissance man.

The release cites him as a baseball expert:

Milwaukee, WI— The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation announced today that Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George F. Will will serve as Master of Ceremonies for the 2006 Bradley Prizes. The third annual awards gala ceremony to be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, May 25, 2006. Up to four individuals will be honored, each receiving a stipend of $250,000.

“George Will is widely recognized as a superb intellect, a brilliant writer and Washington’s leading baseball authority,” said Michael W. Grebe, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bradley Foundation. “Having him as the Master of Ceremonies will make it a night to remember.”

But it turns out he's also an expert on global warming, which Will says is a fig newton of someone's imagination.

American Progress has the scoop:

Will-ful Deception

On Sunday, conservative pundit George Will used prime space in the Washington Post and other major papers to suggest that not only is global warming not the result of human activity, but that global warming may not exist at all. There is no evidence to support Will's claim, so he resorted to distortion, misdirection, and outright deception...

WILL SAYS THAT EVEN IF GLOBAL WARMING EXISTS, IT MIGHT BE A GOOD THING: Will says that even if, hypothetically, the globe is warming, it might be a good thing. Will asks: "Are we sure the consequences of climate change -- remember, a thick sheet of ice once covered the Midwest -- must be bad?" Will doesn't mention any of the purported benefits of global warming. Scientists, however, believe that global warming is likely to cause severe hurricanes, flooding of coastal population centers, and the spread of serious disease...

Question: Given the lack of any factual grounding, is there a point when printing mythology about global warming is incompatible with responsible journalism?