The right-wing Heartland Institute has been making a big fuss about "500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares."
Five hundred skeptical scientists? Sounds bad!
Kevin Grandia at DeSmogBlog had the radical idea of actually contacting the scientists, to see if they are being accurately characterized by Heartland.
You see where this is going, right?
In less than 24 hours, Grandia received three dozen outraged replies from scientists who didn't know they were on the list and wanted to be removed. At this point the number is up to 45. Here's a representative quote, from Dr. David Sugden, Professor of Geography, University of Edinburgh:
I am horrified to find my name on such a list. I have spent the last 20 years arguing the opposite.
Says University of Maryland's Distinguished Professor Eugenia Kalnay:
This is just another example of lack of scruples that climate skeptics have shown in pursuing short-term financial advantages, and basically condemning the next generations to suffer the consequences of climate change due to our lack of prudent and responsible planning.
If Heartland really believes what it claims, why does it have to lie and slander scientists to make the point?
I assume the mainstream media will follow up on this, Heartland will lose its credibility, and their inevitable next BS press release won't be gullibly quoted by journalists across the country. Ha ha.
For McCain, it’s really all about the fake snow
What to make of the new climate poll
Comments
View as Flat
wesrolley Posted 3:50 am
02 May 2008
You assume too much about Mainstream Media. Do you actually think that John "Give Me a break" Stossel will cover this? Actually, his comments on "The Globe is Warming, but Why? The Debated is Not Over" carries 738 comments. How many posts here carry attract that much attention, even though the truth is here, not there. (In all fairness, I did not count the number calling Stossel an idiot versus the number calling him a hero).
How do we break past this? I really wonder. It is about as important as anything we need to do.
Wes Rolley
CoChair - EcoAction Committee
Green Party US
Permalink
gzuckier Posted 4:32 am
02 May 2008
Permalink
Sean Casten Posted 5:46 am
02 May 2008
Signed,
Albert Furt
Peter Grunberg
John Mather
George Smoot
Roy Glauber
John Hall
Theodor Hansch
David Gross
H. David Politzer
Frank Wilczek
Alexei Abriskosov
Vitaly Ginzburg
Masatoshi Koshiba
Raymond Davis Jr.
Eric Cornell
Wolfgang Keiterle
Carl Weiman
Unless you hear back from every single one of these guys claiming I made this up, you will have to conclude that it is at least partially true.
Keep your pets away from Heartland!
Permalink
Biodiversivist Posted 6:58 am
02 May 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
Permalink
David Roberts Posted 7:16 am
02 May 2008
BioD, I look forward to your upcoming Taxonomy of Dimwittery.
grist.org
Permalink
SKenzie Posted 7:16 am
02 May 2008
Where are Manacker, Black Wallaby, or Jabaillo when we need them? I usually wish they would just shut up and go away, but I think it might be interesting to hear their take on this.
Permalink
frankbi Posted 2:35 pm
02 May 2008
Their take on the Heartland list? The usual conspiracy theory crap -- scientists have been coerced by invisible Bolshevist forces to make the statements they made, yadda yadda yadda.
(My response to that: "Fred, been studying hammer-and-sickle patterns formed on cereal flakes? Or doing crossword puzzles to find traces of Bolshevism in Moby Dick?")
(VJ's response: "He's trying to play his CDs backwards, but it doesn't work.")
Plus, the ninja trolls are also throwing out lots of gratuitous smoke bombs to divert our attention to other topics.
-- bi, International Journal of Inactivism
Permalink
frankbi Posted 2:54 pm
02 May 2008
-- bi, International Journal of Inactivism
Permalink
frankbi Posted 7:17 pm
03 May 2008
-- bi, International Journal of Inactivism
Permalink