Scientists Threatened for ‘Climate Denial’
March 12th, 2007A shapeless figure bent over him, he smelt the fresh leather of the revolver belt; but what insignia did the figure wear on the sleeves and shoulder straps of its uniform–and in whose name did it raise the dark pistol barrel?
—Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon
Meet the new fascist religion. Same as the old fascist religion. Complete with extremism, a criminal elite and village idiots proudly preaching unquestionable dogma.
Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve seen this one about a hundred times before.
Via: Telegraph:
Scientists who questioned mankind’s impact on climate change have received death threats and claim to have been shunned by the scientific community.
They say the debate on global warming has been “hijacked” by a powerful alliance of politicians, scientists and environmentalists who have stifled all questioning about the true environmental impact of carbon dioxide emissions.
Timothy Ball, a former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg in Canada, has received five deaths threats by email since raising concerns about the degree to which man was affecting climate change.
One of the emails warned that, if he continued to speak out, he would not live to see further global warming.
“Western governments have pumped billions of dollars into careers and institutes and they feel threatened,” said the professor.
“I can tolerate being called a sceptic because all scientists should be sceptics, but then they started calling us deniers, with all the connotations of the Holocaust. That is an obscenity. It has got really nasty and personal.”
Last week, Professor Ball appeared in The Great Global Warming Swindle, a Channel 4 documentary in which several scientists claimed the theory of man-made global warming had become a “religion”, forcing alternative explanations to be ignored.
Richard Lindzen, the professor of Atmospheric Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology – who also appeared on the documentary – recently claimed: “Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves labelled as industry stooges.
“Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science.”
Dr Myles Allen, from Oxford University, agreed. He said: “The Green movement has hijacked the issue of climate change. It is ludicrous to suggest the only way to deal with the problem is to start micro managing everyone, which is what environmentalists seem to want to do.”
Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist, said: “Governments are trying to achieve unanimity by stifling any scientist who disagrees. Einstein could not have got funding under the present system.”
Related: Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming
Lindzen charged “oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; [and] his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels and a speech he wrote, entitled ‘Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,’ was underwritten by OPEC.
This man is a shill. For a look at what scientists say about his comments given (not so freely) go to:
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=222
Yeah, and the gay prostitute they celebrated last week at the conservative convention was called a “baby killer” on his college campus. RIGGGGHHHHHT!!
How do you mentally segue your article on the Indian farmers with this one? All this article does is give carte blanche to global corporations to continue doing what they want to do.
Stop posting this crap.
Local. Local. Local. Get it??!! Stop giving credence to the crap you are supposedly against. Stop telling their story. Start telling the story of a healed planet. It will probably help a lot.
mtlouie,
My wife and I are growing all of our vegetables and get our milk from our neighbor’s cow. That is, until our cows calve and we get milk from them. We use an automobile about once per week, and only drive a few KMs. Our home is heated ONLY with sunlight.
I’m quite positive that I live a lower energy footprint lifestyle than you, and you’re lecturing me… Telling me to shut up.
Fuck you asshole.
Take your sustainable Walmarts, your cat fart carbon offsets and your crackpot religion and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine. Clean green fascism is still fascism and I’m not going to get behind Al Gore and the limousine liberals in a race to micromanage every aspect of our lives.
Heat rises, you dumb shit:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B2GGGL_enNZ177&q=solar+tower
Sea water is about 830 times denser than air. Do the oceans ever stop moving?
http://www.physorg.com/news4142.html
We can’t these simple technologies, but Al Gore and the gang know the score. HA
Why don’t you enlighten us with what you’re doing to help the planet, besides trying to censor people and making a total idiot out of yourself?
>>>Stop posting this crap.
Why don’t you try to make me, you spineless twit.
Man, fuck you twice.
Al Gore and Hollywood on the environment:
Now That’s Entertainment!
Kev,
As far as climate change, I think Gore gets the facts write but his solutions are, as you say, greened up fascism. It’s like the doctor diagnosing you and saying, “you have disease X and the way to get cured is to let me fuck you in the ass.” Okay once the doc hits me up with “Let me fuck you in the ass” bit I’m probably going to automatically react with “screw you, your cure, AND your diagnosis” . . . even if the diagnosis part was actaully fact based.
CAF had a pretty good article on this, just google “al gore catherine austin fitts” it should probably come up. I had it linked on LATOC a long time ago.
Kev,
Regarding the documentary, found this bit over at PeakOIl.com:
“The director also did a documentary that argued silicon breast implants actually decrease the risk of breast cancer. His scientific advisor eventually walked off the project because they were distorting and ignoring her research.”
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/3/6/8814/25388
Louie,
Unlike the alleged greens who are just talking about all of this stuff, and thinking about new an innovative ways to control everyone, (like you seem to want to do) Kevin is actually walking the walk when it comes to “sustainability.”
You say “Start telling the story of a healed planet.”
See for yourself what Kevin and his wife are doing.
http://farmlet.co.nz/
I’m all for keeping an open mind on climate change but in the absence of any actually convincing evidence in the opposite direction I think the only sensible option is to go with the scientific consensus of 99% of scientists over the last 20 years. Its not like they haven’t had to fight through an enormous amount of governemntal and corporate flak to get their message heard. Frankly, purely from a physics perspective, it’s hard to see how increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere _wouldn’t_ increase global temperatures significantly. I understand the surface of Venus is fairly warm for similar reasons…
The whole C4 doc was a very strange affair. I don’t remember the last time there was even a neutral or balanced documentary on climate change on the channel, and now suddenly they give over an hour and a half of prime time viewing to someone with extremely contentious views on the subject. Seems a bit odd. Kind of like the sudden slew of anti-Peak Oil media product that started coming out last year just as the subject was threatening to make it into mainstream consciousness. It’s not even necessarily a conspiracy so much as newspaper editors and tv execs looking for a good angle, which in this case is anything that holds out a slender straw of hope that we won’t have to fundamentally alter the entire structure of human activity in order to avoid the worst excesses of climatic change.
A quick internet search reveals quite a lot wrong with the doc, not least the many factual ‘errors’ in it, plus Durkin’s previous colourful career, and the on-air apology C4 has had to make as a result of his practices. For the record, most scientists are, unsurprisingly, capable of factoring the existence of the sun into their calculations and therefore adjust their climatological models to account for variations in solar activity.
I wish it were true, but I’m not buying.
Wisdom.
http://nichegeek.com/common_idiocy
Common Idiocy
A long time ago, I learned a simple rule of life: When the crowd rushes off in a lather to the right… I take a serious look at going left instead.
You don’t have to be a student of history for very long before it becomes blaringly apparent that the “common wisdom†of any culture is usually just deadass wrong. There’s something slithery deep in our nature that makes us gullible whenever “everyone†starts believing something.
After the dust settles, it’s hard to see how anyone could have bought into whatever was thought of as a brilliant idea at the time. Enron was featured on every major finanical publication’s front cover as the “company of the future†just months before it collapsed. People went absolutely berzerk over really stupid (and completely unworkable) Web concepts while the Dot Com bubble stretched toward the inevitable pop.
And yes, while some people made a bundle during the recent real estate land-grab… I’m sure you know more than a few folks who are sitting on muliple mortgages equal to, gosh, more than they earn. On paper, they look like finanical geniuses. If only they can get someone to buy those overpriced spec properties, hopefully before the next mortgage payment arrives…
It’s the same mentality that fuels witch hunts. Something in our lizard brain wants to believe the worst about everything and everyone. For some folks, fear is the only thing that gets them up in the morning. Especially when “everyone†shares the same jitters….
Kevin wrote: “Fuck you asshole.” to one of the posters. Well Kevin I won’t tell you what to say. But it doesn’t mean anyone has to read it.
I hardly think the poster above is the enemy. The holier than thou attitude has grown old. Bookmark deleted.
WTF is with this post? At this point, you really do have to be an incredible pinhead to think global warming is a hoax and something that is still debatable.
Why don’t you post an article about those poor scientists who are pushing for the return of DDT?
Kev,
You’re not seriously comparing climate collapse to the housing bubble and the Enron debacle?
Here’s the thing: if you ask the average person if they’re concerned enough about climate change to do anything about it, the answer will be “not really.” In other words, if we look at people’s actions, how they spend their money, etc. the average westerer isn’t the least bit concerned about climate change.
(But they are concerned about Al-Qaeday dropping some type of chemical bomb that turns everybody gay.)
Applying your logic (which I agree with) which is do the “opposite of the herd” then we should be concerned about CC.
Of course, as you point out you are doing just that as a result of the lifestyle you guys are living.
I think this may be a unique case, and while herd mentality may play a part, equally one could argue people can simply SEE and FEEL a different climate than they have experience their entire lives. I know I can.
As far as the ‘controversy’ – it reminds me of two other incidences… one, where Christian fundamentalists tried to undermine the theory of evolution by saying there is scientific debate regarding the accuracy of radio carbon dating – of which there is none… only a few crackpots (shills) profess it to be inaccurate. And in the U.S. it seems to have worked. The other is Big Tobacco, when they threw doubt on cigarrettes being harmful to your health… it was the same thing, a few paid shills, a few distorted articles and the seeds of doubt were sown. All they need do is cloud the issue and they’ve won.
As far as fascism or a new tax… I have seen absolutely zero credibility on those fronts. They don’t need anything to implement more fascism. NOTHING has even proven a minor stumbling block to what they’ve done so far. And taxes? Everything is already taxed out the wazzoo. People are taxed to death and living in debt as it is. If there was room for more taxes, they would already be implemented.
Now, we have people like Alex Jones claiming it’s all a big conspiracy… but I find his arguments to make no sense. There is no economic reason for Big Oil to get behind any kind of tax… it can only hurt them. I love the guy, but this he’s flat out wrong… and I’m beginning to wonder at his motivations.
Kevin, I don’t wonder about you, but I still think you may be mistaken on this one. I think the bad guys have done their job well and provided something that enables doubt… something that on the surface makes sense. I’d say it’s time to re-evaluate this whole mess with an unbiased perspective.
There’s also the idea that this and other divisive issues may be being manipulated to foment what is basically a new civil war.
Ha!
Someone on reddit made a keen observation a few weeks ago–it’s not the oil, it’s about the power. no one gives two damns about the oil. the only important thing, in the end, is the acquisition and maintenance of power–the ability to inflict one’s will on another man. And oil has been a marvelous tool for that over the past 100 years.
And *that* is the issue of our day. Not peak oil, not climate change, etc–all hefty issues indeed, but not the true concern of ponderous men. Oil flows from the ground, the ground can be controlled by armies, through property rights, through shipping lanes. Nothing as freely available as solar power & its derivatives, or fusion, will ever become “viable” so long as the actual barriers to entry are so low. Or so the propaganda & coercion machine would have you believe, and make so.
So climate change: oh, the climate may be changing, there may be a human factor, and for sure man has the capacity to pollute his environment and make it less habitable. Indeed, there are many facts to support the position that human activity is driving climate change.
Propaganda, to be effective, is built on such facts. But the propaganda machine is not concerned with the spread of *facts* and information–that would let the game out–no, it aims solely to realize a private agenda that none of you nor I am privy to.
Thus the truth of the matter will not emerge, whatever it may be. A sliver there in you mind, another sliver here in mine, and so forth around the world, like historians laboring under a communist regime, each with his own private research into the truth behind a particular historical episode, enough to warrant whispers but not enough to puncture the personal fog of an otherwise unquestioned official narrative.
Truth be told, something as simple as a carbon tax would probably solve all our problems. Maybe not a carbon tax per se, I don’t know, but I am sure there are very simple solutions to the terrible troubles we face. I have the age and experience to accept that, and thus the question is–why haven’t these troubles already been solved, why are they festering? (and if not in reality than at least in the public mind) For there are many problems of human social organization, warfare, agriculture, mechanics, that have all been solved and all seem quite complex before the solution presents itself.
So that is the question, and I appreciate Kevin’s skepticism, being so well calibrated as it is.
mh wrote: Well Kevin I won’t tell you what to say. But it doesn’t mean anyone has to read it.
Hahahahaha. And then the petulant little shit huffily announces that he’s DELETING his BOOKMARK. Gawd, I love this blog. It’s a hoot.
For god’s sake people, I KNOW what Kevin is doing! I appreciate it. By the by, I was doing this when Kevin was probably in short pants, so I even get the concept….
Didn’t think you’d come completely unglued!!!! Kevin. I disagree with you on this. Disagree. Wow, do they have disagreement in New Zealand or does everyone follow some proscribed agenda?
I think you are WRONG about this. Hell, you can’t be right about everything can you? If you are, the world is missing its’ savior. CALM DOWN!! I know you are doing your part. I just think this sort of article is exactly what TPTB want. “It’s not our fault. It’s the sun’s fault. Please notice this as you continue to buy the crap we spew out and pollute every living inch of the planet.”
Okay, so we disagree. Man! I didn’t say, “Shut up.” I said this article was crap and it is. I think someone posted a link proving the guy was paid by some energy think tank.
Geez, you may live a low energy footprint, but your blood pressure is out there! And I’m sorry I insinuated that you should or should not post certain things. That, of course, is your perogative and I could have worded my dissent much better. However, I do dissent and hope you think about what people who disagree with you over this have posted.
I’m with you on the fascist thing- but notice how they aren’t saying global warming is pretty much a planet killer- they are saying if we just buy green, convert to green, manufacture green, all will be well. It’s not that global warming isn’t true- it’s that it can be ameliorated by buying something.
I think they are just refusing to accept they (we) are at fault or that manufacturing could possibly be the problem.
Other than that, I actually agree with you even if you did call me bad, bad names… that’s okay. Pretty thick skinned.
Oh, and a poster above said something about being “holier than thou.” Just out of experience, after you’ve had to live like you’re living for five or ten years and you HAVE to do it, then come back and tell us how great it is. I lived this way for almost twenty years, not necessarily voluntarily. It’s “fun” at first and novel and new. But, I can tell you, it gets old. Add a kid or two into the mix. I went to church with an old lady who said, “There was nothing good about the good old days. It was nothing but hard work.” There are people who are cut out for it, who view it as an art form. If that’s you five or ten years from now, that’s wonderful. But why do you think most people after the depression were glad to move to town? I had an aunt that reviled everything about farm life. Grew up there and never wanted to go back. And no one in my family on either side (all of whom grew up on the farm) stayed on the farm. If you have animals, you are there. You don’t go on vacation. Well, I didn’t. Couldn’t afford it and didn’t know anyone who wanted to come over to feed chickens, ducks, cows, pigs, milk goats, etc. Even if we paid them.
But year after year after year canning hundreds of quarts of fruits and vegetables, milking twice a day, baking my own bread (every week, week in week out,) cooking on a wood stove, getting up in the morning to build a fire so I could cook, using an outhouse, etc. It’s romantic and fun for the first year or two, after that, not so much. Not saying it won’t have to be done again, just know it’s not all fun and games. Also, didn’t have the option to have a blog and have people donate money….good idea.
Kevin- you said:
You don’t have to be a student of history for very long before it becomes blaringly apparent that the “common wisdom†of any culture is usually just deadass wrong. There’s something slithery deep in our nature that makes us gullible whenever “everyone†starts believing something.
Actually, there’s lots of stuff that got “thought up” that “common wisdom” started out reviling: The danger of DDT and other pesticides, voting rights, unions, pollution control, women’s rights, anti-slavery, organic food, CFL bulbs, bio-fuels (right or wrong,) animal conservation, civil rights, global warming (whatever the cause,) public education, birth control, doctors washing their hands before examining a patient. Just to name fifteen….
Kevin, I would think that deliberately attempting to offend your readership would be counterproductive in the extreme. It certainly will not win over hearts and minds, and does little to advance any message you might have….
I am not sure I like the tone of these post…this is starting to sound like information clearing house…..
Kevin,
I commend you for posting an article containing truths apparent to anyone who makes a valid attempt to look beyond their own dogmatism.
I assume the inability of many persons to unravel this memetic Gordian Knot results from:
their inability to separate humankind’s propensity to pollute the earth from the actual problems said pollution MAY OR MAY NOT be creating.
In an effort to give the blind sight, I present the following axiom: CORRELATION MAY OR MAY NOT EQUAL CAUSALITY, i.e. even though humans are polluting the earth and global warming is occurring at the same time, ONE EVENT (humanity using the earth’s resources in ways that result in pollution) MAY OR MAY NOT BE THE CATALYST FOR THE OTHER (global-warming-as-main-cause-of-climate-chaos), and, until it is proven BEYOND DOUBT that human-pollution-equals-global-warming-equals-climate-chaos-equals-need-for-draconian-laws-limiting-resource-consumption-by-common-people, I will walk the path of liberty, that is, I will consume as I please, unless I am forced by power beyond my control to behave otherwise.
p.s.
speaking of power beyond my control attempting to force me to behave otherwise:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/12/movies/12vill.html?ex=1331352000&en=ca92dc7d4e5ac138&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
p.p.s.
What’s the epitome of irony??
A person gorging on mental pollution (in the form of Their global-warming-meme) making a valiant effort to starve himself or herself in order to prevent pollution born of resource-consumption.
A suggestion to those under the hypnotic spell of this meme: start eating your own shit; I’ll be glad to eat the food you fail to consume as you morph from human to self-contained-food-recycling unit!!
reading mtlouie’s rant #16 up there, i was reminded of the piece in my home town paper the other week that i only caught because someone smart sent the link to energybulletin.net.
Lost in the bush 40 minutes from Auckland
Don’t you just love if how people tell you you’ll be dying top get back to civilization, tv and starbucks after a couple of years of hard labour on the farm?
didn’t think so.
(the nzherald is such a reactionary right-wing piece of shit, i can’t figure how they slipped this piece under the boss’s radar…)