Sad that climate McCarthyism has come to this. This week, a renowned climate scientist was forced to step down because of incessant threats. He had agreed to become an advisor to the non-alarmist climate think tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation three weeks earlier. But he had to resign, because of unbearable group pressure. Here from his resignation letter: I have been put under such an enormous group pressure in recent days from all over the world that has become virtually unbearable to me. If this is going to continue I will be unable to conduct my normal work and will even start to worry about my health and safety. I see therefore no other way out therefore than resigning from GWPF. I had not expecting such an enormous world-wide pressure put at me from a community that I have been close to all my active life. Colleagues are withdrawing their support, other colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship etc. I see no limit and end to what will happen. It is a situation that reminds me about the time of McCarthy. I would never have expecting anything similar in such an original peaceful community as meteorology. Apparently it has been transformed in recent years. thegwpf.org/lennart-bengtsson-resigns-gwpf-voices-shock-and-concern-at-the-extent-of-intolerance-within-the-climate-science-community/ This is by no means the only researcher that has been MCCarthy-ed: Judith Curry and Roger Pielke Jr are routinely smeared for their stances (judithcurry/2014/05/16/reflections-on-bengtsson-and-the-gwpf/) Judith Curry points out the direct consequences: So what is the impact on a scientist of the so-called climate McCarthyism? As a result of smearings by Romm, Mann, et al., I am excluded from serious consideration for administrative positions at universities, offices in professional societies, consideration for awards from professional societies, a number of people won’t collaborate with me, and anyone who wants to invite me to be a keynote speaker has to justify this in light of all the cr*p that shows up if you google ‘Judith Curry’. Global warming is real and a problem, but the way that any arguments besides the hyper-alarmist are attacked and branded as heresy is counterproductive and wrong. In the long run the even worse fallout could be an eventual diminished stature of all scientific discussion. nationalreview/article/378011/science-mccarthyism-rupert-darwall
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 11:42:43 +0000
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