Campagne Amerikaanse klimatologen tegen sceptici
The 'Chicago Tribune' rapporteerde:
Climate scientists plan campaign against global warming skeptics
The American Geophysical Union plans to announce that 700 researchers have agreed to speak out on the issue. Other scientists plan a pushback against congressional conservatives who have vowed to kill regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.
An analysis by a liberal think tank found that half of the more than 100 new Republican Congress members are skeptics on global warming. (Chicago Tribune / February 28, 2007)
Faced with rising political attacks, hundreds of climate scientists are joining a broad campaign to push back against congressional conservatives who have threatened prominent researchers with investigations and vowed to kill regulations to rein in man-made greenhouse gas emissions. ...
The still-evolving efforts reveal a shift among climate scientists, many of whom have traditionally stayed out of politics and avoided the news media. Many now say they are willing to go toe-to-toe with their critics, some of whom gained new power after the Republicans won control of the House in Tuesday's election. ...
On Monday, the American Geophysical Union, the country's largest association of climate scientists, plans to announce that 700 climate scientists have agreed to speak out as experts on questions about global warming and the role of man-made air pollution.
John Abraham of St. Thomas University in Minnesota, who last May wrote a widely disseminated response to climate change skeptics, is also pulling together a "climate rapid response team," which includes scientists prepared to go before what they consider potentially hostile audiences on conservative talk radio and television shows.
"This group feels strongly that science and politics can't be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists," said Scott Mandia, professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in New York.
"We are taking the fight to them because we are tired of taking the hits. The notion that truth will prevail is not working. The truth has been out there for the past two decades, and nothing has changed."
Lees verder hier.
Het is m.i. in beginsel een goede zaak dat wetenschappers aan publieksvoorlichting doen en de politiek de helpende hand reiken om tot verstandig beleid te komen. Maar de sfeer waarin deze campagne wordt gestart belooft toch niet veel goeds. De betrokken AGWers pretenderen de absolute waarheid in pacht te hebben, zoals uit de uitlatingen van Scott Mania naar voren komt. Hij heeft kennelijk de recente klimaatrapporten van de Britse 'Royal Society'
en de Franse 'Académie des Sciences' gemist. Hierin is duidelijk sprake van een erkenning van de groeiende onzekerheid ten aanzien van tal van elementen van de menselijke broeikashypothese, die voorheen algemeen als vaststaand werden aangenomen. Uiteraard gaan deze rapporten niet zo ver dat zij de opvattingen van de mainstream van de klimaatsceptici omarmen. Maar zij gaan wèl een eind in die richting.
