De gedachtepolitie: klimaat-McCarthyisme in actie

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In de (lange) aanloop naar de klimaattop in Parijs aan het einde van dit jaar, worden van de zijde van de aanhangers van de menselijke broeikashypothese (AGW = 'Anthropogenic Global Warming') allerlei acties ondernomen om klimaatsceptici het zwijgen op te leggen. Voor zover ik mij kan herinneren, is dat sinds de door McCarthy ontketende heksenjacht tegen de communisten in de jaren vijftig niet meer in die mate voorgekomen.

Op enkele ondernemingen na, houdt het bedrijfsleven zich muisstil, terwijl het klimaatbeleid dat vele westerse regeringen voeren, toch enorme gevolgen heeft voor hun toekomst, ja zelfs overleven.

Er is een groep sceptische wetenschappers die zich luid en duidelijk laat horen. Maar een aantal van hen staat aan forse druk bloot van de zijde van AGW–collega's, de milieubeweging en 'groene' sympathiserende, overwegend linkse, politici, vooral in de V.S. Het meest recente voorbeeld daarvan zijn de aanvallen op Willy Soon, waarover ik eerder berichtte.

Onder de titel, 'Crushing climate thoughtcrime', schreef Peter Foster onlangs in de Canadese 'Financial Post'.

Only a couple of fossil fuel companies — Koch Industries and ExxonMobil — have ever dared to express anything approaching climate skepticism

The U.S. Democratic witch hunt against scientists skeptical about official climate science threatens to blow up in the faces of the Inquisitors. It lays bare the totalitarian mentality behind the radical climate agenda. Nobody must be allowed to dissent from “the consensus.” If they do, it is because they are either suitable cases for treatment, victims of “motivated reasoning,” or in the pay of the fossil fuel industry. The last–mentioned is the basis for this week’s McCarthyesque grandstanding by U.S. Democratic Representative Raul Grijalva, chair of the House committee in environment and natural resources.

Mr. Grijalva has sent letters to seven universities demanding details of the funding of prominent skeptical scientists including Wei-Hock “Willie” Soon of the of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and MIT’s Richard Lindzen. Meanwhile Senator Ed Markey and colleagues have gone on a huge fishing expedition, demanding details from corporations of any funding for science that deviates from that sanctioned by the Democratic Politburo. ...

Certainly, one should always be suspicious of funding by interested parties, but any support for skeptical research by the fossil fuel industry is swamped literally thousands of times by funding for the official perspective from governments, anti-capitalist foundations and international organizations centred in the UN. ...

At the heart of catastrophic climate theory is the spectre of capitalism as a greedy and short-sighted system with no regard for anything but the bottom line. That is, Marxism in the Emperor’s new cloak of green. ...

Against the hundreds of major corporations that grovel before environmental NGOs and the threat of bad policy, only a couple have ever dared to express anything approaching skepticism – Koch Industries and ExxonMobil. Their reward has been subjection to the equivalent of the Orwellian “Two-Minutes Hate.” ….

“McCarthyism” has been invoked more than once by skeptical scientists who have been howled down and/or ostracized. British academic and television personality David Bellamy had been an environmental hero until he pointed out that the peer reviewed climate literature was in fact near-unanimous in not predicting climate catastrophe.

A more recent example was the eminent Swedish climatologist Lennart Bengtsson, who was fiercely attacked after it was announced that he would join the Academic Advisory Council of the London-based Global Warming Policy Foundation, one of the world’s leading skeptical think tanks.

Professor Bengtsson withdrew saying he was concerned not merely for his health, but for his safety. ...

Members of the scientific/academic community are increasingly concerned about attempts to silence their colleagues, but few have been prepared to stand up and be counted because they fear they would be subjected to the same career–limiting onslaught.

It’s time for honest scientists to stand up for free inquiry.

Aldus Peter Foster.

Lees verder hier.

Klimaat maakt meer kapot dan je lief is.

Voor mijn eerdere DDS–bijdragen zie hier.