Scientists recieve death threats for questioning global warming

[Beldaran]

Some choice quotes from The Article: (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/11/ngreen211.xml)


[The Scientists] 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.
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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."

[Tygore]

I knew that some people had practically taken a religious fervor to global warming, but this is ridiculous.

[mikeron]

That is so two years ago. [1 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/01/wglob01.xml)]

/loved the line about "deniers"

EDIT: Added link.

[Beldaran]

Hey, cool. I posted this to Slashdot and they accepted it. (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/12/157223)

Here is my post in the topic. (http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=226173&cid=18318841)

[Gunslinger]

I personally crafted many of the death threats, but only because I thought it was the cool thing to do.

[The_Amaster]

What kind of scientist is going to actually believe a death threat he recieves?

I personally don't know weather I believe in global warming or not but I do know that were screwing up the enviorment somehow, and if global warming gives us an excuse to clean it up, than I'm not going to argue.

[Rainman]

What kind of scientist is going to actually believe a death threat he recieves?

I personally don't know weather I believe in global warming or not but I do know that were screwing up the enviorment somehow, and if global warming gives us an excuse to clean it up, than I'm not going to argue.


There is never a good excuse for lying. How about doing responsible, honest science?

I've heard these allegations before. Some of my more conspiracy minded libertarians like to say that Global Warming is being used as an excuse to put greater controls on society. I don't really know what to believe, but I've heard plenty of skeptical people say that Global Warming is happening and humans are partly to blame. I don't really think it's my place to debate this though.

[Dechipher]

There is never a good excuse for lying. How about doing responsible, honest science?

I've heard these allegations before. Some of my more conspiracy minded libertarians like to say that Global Warming is being used as an excuse to put greater controls on society. I don't really know what to believe, but I've heard plenty of skeptical people say that Global Warming is happening and humans are partly to blame. I don't really think it's my place to debate this though.

Humans are fucking up the world big time, regardless of what you want to call it.
Just look outside.

[beefster09]

What's funny about global warming is that back in the 70s, before many of us were born, the scientists/environmentalists thought there was global cooling. I actually theorize that the weather changes on a sine/cosine wave pattern.
I'm willing to accept that the sine wave is being pushed up gradually, though. But it's probably more of the cows' faults. Their farts are helping to kill the ozone layer.

[Pineconn]

My school had zero snow days two years ago. The same for one year ago. This year, we had four snow days. Three of the four were due to temperatures below -15°F. Global warming... yeah right.

I personally think global warming is a load of crap. I agree with Rainman's sentences; the ones before "I don't really know what to believe."

A ton of weather patterns exist that can disprove or at least rebut global warming. Two examples are El Niño/La Niña and the positioning of the jet stream. What really makes me laugh is that some people are blaming George W. Bush for the supposèd global warming.

[The_Amaster]

Like I said, I'm not sure. But we are mucking up the enviorment, and that you can't argue with. I mean, you can't just pour tons(literally tons) of toxic smog into the air, and not have any reprecussions. Global warming, meh, I don't know, but were screwing with stuff, and somehow it's going to bite us.

[Glenn the Great]

I'm not an ecologist or a meteorologist, and I'm not an expert on the subject, so like Rainman, I don't feel I'm qualified to step into this and say how things really are.

I'm open to the idea that our pollution is causing the warming, or that warming and cooling just happen in cycles, and we are possibly having only a negligible effect on things. I have no idea how much we are harming the atmosphere.

It is something that needs to be studied very hard though, as it is a serious issue. Curtailing our pollution is a great idea for many other reasons too. To the argument of global warming being a conspiracy fueled by the interests of scientists, I have to say that the anti-warming frenzy sounds like it might be fueled by the interests of big industrial companies wanting to have lesser pollution standards imposed on them.

I recently noticed a Conservative Christian community start adamantly opposing the theory on global warming (with some going as far as to say that it wasn't true because they just had an unusually cold winter in their little Podunk city.) I found this a little odd, as the community in question is very gung-ho on pointing out any evidence it can find that the world is heading toward utter annihilation. It was then that I realized that they were mostly all Republicans who hate the environment. The cognitive dissonance there is almost palpable.

[Beldaran]

I agree with Glenn, for the most part. I posted the story because I'm wary of political fanaticism in either direction.

I can accept anthropogenic global warming on scientific merit, and I can accept the lack of it on scientific merit. What I will not accept, is letting Al Gore get me all psyched up to vote for his political party just because he makes wild emotional appeals that are cloaked in just enough science to seem objective.

[Glenn the Great]

I agree that it was a bad move on Gore's part to inject politics into the issue as he did. Come to think of it, that seems to be the key reason that the debate has blown into the immature proportions that it has.

[MasterSwordUltima]

What kind of scientist is going to actually believe a death threat he recieves?


What kind of scientist is going to actually believe a death threat he recieves via e-mail?

[Pineconn]

Politics just messes everything up, for the most part. We can't say Merry Christmas - no, we should say Happy Holidays. Hey, let's change Daylight Savings Time while we're at it.

:think:

Let's change the number of months from 10 to 12.

[The_Amaster]

We can't say Merry Christmas - no, we should say Happy Holidays.
Ah, no, you forget Pineconn, somebody might get offended, and heaven forbid.

Forget the fact that our children in public schools are educated in Hanakuh and Kawanza, but barely touch Christmas.

[Aegix Drakan]

you know, if you're too afraid you'll offend someone, you'll neve open your mouth!

If I see some guy out in the street preaching the muslim religion, or I see 2 guys kissing on the bus, I'm not offended. Everyone is different, and we just have take it all in stride. And if we think someone else's religion offends us, then keep the feeling to yourself, and stop crying bloody murder because we said Merry Chirstmas!

Seriously, all this "political corecctness" is really getting to be stupid. We all have the right to express ourselves, and all that that implies. If other people can express their Religious views, then so can we (as long as we don't take it to the extreme and force people to convert, or something...Free will for all, I say.)

[symbiote]

"Better to be thought of as a silent fool than open your mouth and remove any doubt."

When Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, it released more air pollution over a 24-hour period than the people of Washington state have in recorded history. A 'relatively minor' earthquake off the coast of Chile a few years ago caused an oil spill (opened up a natural, untapped oil deposit) 100 times worse than Valdez.

And I agree with Aegix, if other people can express their religious beliefs, so can we. Including those 'religions' commonly called 'science'.

[Starkist]

Hey, cool. I posted this to Slashdot and they accepted it. (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/12/157223)

Here is my post in the topic. (http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=226173&cid=18318841)

I was browsing Slashdot the other day and saw "Forrest Kyle". Thought that was pretty spiffy, good job.

Agree with the article by the way, I've posted a few thoughts at my weblog. Human global climate change is more religious dogma than scientific fact, and non-believers are ostracized.

[Pineconn]

Yeah, religion screws everything up, too. Palestine/Israel, anyone?

[Aegix Drakan]

>_> uh..I don't think it's Religon's fault. I think it's the fault of overzealous and/or corrupt people who use it as an excuse, or use it to justify all kinds of nasty things.

In short, if we all kept our beliefs more or less to ourselves and didn't go nuts trying to force it onto others, we'd have less confilct.

[The_Amaster]

In short, if we all kept our beliefs more or less to ourselves and didn't go nuts trying to force it onto others, we'd have less confilct.

Dude, that's not jut religion, that's like everything. If we figured that out, we'd pretty much end all wars and conflict.

And it depends on the religion. Sometimes it is the fault of the religion, because it encourages or directly states ideas of hate and violence.