Richard Lindzen: 'I like climate denier.'

BBC interviews Nobel prize winner Lindzen about being a denier

It's a Nobel prize week, so I will deliberately insert the inventor's name to many postings. [Als voormalig lid en 'expert reviewer' van het VN-klimaatpanel heeft Dick Lindzen namelijk ook een deel van de Nobelprijs (voor de vrede) gekregen – net zoals ondergetekende overigens.]

The BBC has interviewed "Nobel winner Richard Lindzen on being a climate change denier, and why office plants rock" (it's their description!):

At the very beginning, Lindzen corrects the host that he is no "skeptic": a "denier" (or "realist") is actually more accurate. Lindzen's impressive list of publications is mentioned, among many other things. It's the kind of a BBC program that would be unthinkable just a year ago.

Something has obviously changed about the forces that determine what is thinkable and what is unthinkable at BBC - and elsewhere. Don't get me wrong: the previously unthinkable program was still hosted by the same kind of an unthinking host who would present the thinkable programs for the unthinking audiences years ago, too.

The BBC program recalls some history of the car industry and the theory of the greenhouse effect. Richard's publications, jobs, and awards are mentioned. Dick explains that the word "skeptic" is misleading because the word assumes that there is some pre-existing case for something that could be believed in, and the skeptics don't believe it. However, there is no case for a climate threat.

Needless to say, the host gets a bit combative and mentions that there are "tens of thousands" of scientists who predict a climate threat. (I am not sure where he got this particular meaningless number from.) Many of them even possess a box with a red button, he tells Richard in between the lines, but please feel no pressure.

Dick answers that a few years ago, no sane person would say such a silly thing as that there were tens of thousands of people who predict a climate threat. It's a small, small field. The host says that there are many of them now. Dick explains that they grew out of the emotions and most of them are not climate scientists and have no understanding of the atmospheric dynamics. Many of them study cockroaches and their friends and they have added the "impact of AGW" to their research, Richard explains to the stunned host who clearly has no idea about the real world.