Posted on 12/18/2006 7:02:21 AM PST by spacejunkie
British Lord Stings Senators Rockefeller and Snowe: 'Uphold Free Speech or Resign' PR Newswire - December 18, 2006 09:58
WASHINGTON, Dec 18, 2006 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Lord Monckton, Viscount of Brenchley, has sent an open letter to Senators Rockefeller (D-WV) and Snowe (R-Maine) in response to their recent open letter telling the CEO of ExxonMobil to cease funding climate-skeptic scientists. (http://ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20061212_monckton.pdf).
Lord Monckton, former policy adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, writes: "You defy every tenet of democracy when you invite ExxonMobil to deny itself the right to provide information to 'senior elected and appointed government officials' who disagree with your opinion."
In what The Charleston (WV) Daily Mail has called "an intemperate attempt to squelch debate with a hint of political consequences," Senators Rockefeller and Snowe released an open letter dated October 30 to ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson, insisting he end Exxon's funding of a "climate change denial campaign." The Senators labeled scientists with whom they disagree as "deniers," a term usually directed at "Holocaust deniers." Some voices on the political left have called for the arrest and prosecution of skeptical scientists. The British Foreign Secretary has said skeptics should be treated like advocates of Islamic terror and must be denied access to the media.
Responds Lord Monckton, "Sceptics and those who have the courage to support them are actually helpful in getting the science right. They do not, as you improperly suggest, 'obfuscate' the issue: they assist in clarifying it by challenging weaknesses in the 'consensus' argument and they compel necessary corrections ... "
Lord Monckton's Churchillian reproof continues, "You acknowledge the effectiveness of the climate sceptics. In so doing, you pay a compliment to the courage of those free-thinking scientists who continue to research climate change independently despite the likelihood of refusal of publication in journals that have taken preconceived positions; the hate mail and vilification from ignorant environmentalists; and the threat of loss of tenure in institutions of learning which no longer make any pretence to uphold or cherish academic freedom."
Of Britain's Royal Society, a State-funded scientific body which, like the Senators, has publicly leaned on ExxonMobil, Lord Monckton said, "The Society's long-standing funding by taxpayers does not ensure any greater purity of motive or rigour of thought than industrial funding of scientists who dare to question whether 'climate change' will do any harm."
To the Senators' comparison of ExxonMobil's funding of climate sceptics with tobacco-industry funding of research denying the link between smoking and lung cancer, Lord Monckton counters, "Your comparison of Exxon's funding of sceptical scientists and groups with the former antics of the tobacco industry is unjustifiable and unworthy of any credible elected representatives. Either withdraw that monstrous comparison forthwith, or resign so as not to pollute the office you hold."
Concludes Lord Monckton, "I challenge you to withdraw or resign because your letter is the latest in what appears to be an internationally-coordinated series of maladroit and malevolent attempts to silence the voices of scientists and others who have sound grounds, rooted firmly in the peer- reviewed scientific literature, to question what you would have us believe is the unanimous agreement of scientists worldwide that global warming will lead to what you excitedly but unjustifiably call 'disastrous' and 'calamitous' consequences."
SOURCE Center for Science and Public Policy
Audrey Mullen, +1-703-548-1160, for the Center for Science and Public Policy
http://www.scienceandpolicy.org
Copyright (C) 2006 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
Owned, as they say.
Well--there's a Brit with a huge set of cajones! I totally agree with what he has written.
My new hero!
Slap!
Brilliant!
Naturally, we can expect this story to receive as wide coverage in the US medai as, say, the calls for Rumsfeld to resign following Abu Gharab, or for Rove to resign following the Plame outing.
George Orwell never envisioned that Big Brother would arrive in the form of suburban American toffs wearing Brooks Brothers and Armani.
When they set up their One World Government, he will be sent to the ReEd Camp along with Rush, Newt, Sean, Mark Levin, et al.
When you control the press..you control the populace...
Should Johnson die or resign the Dems would put great pressure on Snowe and her ilk to jump ship a la Jeffords. I, for one, have no faith in her loyalty.
Actually, Putin could make the same identification and be absolutely correct.
Neither one of these people can be trusted.
Thanks for the link!
God bless this man.
That letter was the most vile piece of fear mongering fascist leaning list of threats under color of law I've seen in my life.
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