The 26 February issue of Science contains an article called “Scientists Grapple With 'Completely Out of Hand' Attacks on Climate Science.” To date, the scientific community seems completely clueless about how to deal with this situation. Clearly, the outrageous attacks of the climate deniers will continue as long as the the response by the scientific community remains feeble and misguided.
The essence of the situation is simple: The attacks by climate deniers on climate science are politically motivated and based on outright lies. These attacks come from Rupert Murdoch and the media empire he controls. These attacks are made in bad faith and have nothing to do normal scientific discourse. Thus, the typical responses by scientists to legitimate scientific objects can not possibly be effective! The response from the scientific community must be robust, high principled and assertive. It must be neither apologetic nor timid. Instead the entire scientific community must label the attacks for what they are: unfounded, politically motivated propaganda. There is no need to display any inappropriate respect for the client deniers. They deserve none. There is no need for timidity or apology: the scientific community has done nothing wrong. Rebutting the climate deniers while remaining a sophisticated, high class tone is quite possible. To see how, look at the superb series of videos, Climate Denial Crock of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/user/greenman3610 The scientific community will be well advised to study all aspects of these videos: their tone, content and above all their attitude. They are clear, assertive and informative, without timidity or apology. They tell the truth about liars. These videos show the only possible way of defending science against climate deniers, namely by going on a high-principled offensive. Until the scientific establishment, including the AAAS and the editors of Science, attack the deniers the outrageous falsehoods will continue. Edward K. Ream P.S. Scientists typically respond to criticism by providing more evidence and being more careful. Such responses are perfectly reasonable when dealing with legitimate scientific critiques. But they are completely irrelevant in the present situation. Indeed, one aim of climate deniers is to make scientists more cautious and timid than they already are. Climate scientists are already extremely cautious; becoming even more so only plays into the climate denier's hands. P.P.S. I believe the AAAS should support the work of Peter Sinclair directly, either with a monetary stipend or by establishing an “Office of Scientific Backbone” with Mr. Sinclair as its first head :-) EKR -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leo-editor" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor?hl=en.
