"Churchillian" is not an adjective that ought to be flung about loosely, but I think in this case it does apply.
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
I honestly hadn't registered that Snowe was a Republican. (My only excuse is that I'm not an American).
So I wonder why we haven't seen anything about it? ;)
(Listening for ANY US politician to say soethign equally effective.)
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"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..."
I had a paper copy of the article right in front of me when this came up in FR :0)
His article is devastating to the much-touted IPCC hockey-stick graph. There is an appended scientific paper on CO2 forcing which is over my head for casual reading, but the rest is extremely useful.
"Churchillian" is not an adjective that ought to be flung about loosely, but I think in this case it does apply.
This congress will make new attempts to silence conservative 'talk-radio' too.
ping
Al Gore, who was Vice-President when the Senate declared 97-0 that it would not ratify any treaty that did not bind fast-growing, heavily-polluting nations such as China, India, Indonesia and Brazil (because without them no action by the West would make any difference) wrote a reply to my article saying that I should not be discussing these matters in the Press. He said I should rely on peer-reviewed research in journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Research Letters.
Within 12 hours, I had published a 24-page refutation of his scientifically-inaccurate article, citing more than 60 references in learned journals. Twenty-five of the citations were from the three journals he mentioned.
"Deniers". What rubbish. If only politicians had a sense of shame. These people are poisoning the political atmosphere with their misuse of the English language.
This guy is a hero in my book.
Way to go Lord Monckton!
Exxon-Mobil is a great company and I encourage ALL to patration them as opposed to some pansy 'liberal' companies like BP!
Me too! We could happily get by without either of them.
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That was well worth the read. I suggest everyone read the whole letter. Strong stuff!
It sounds strangely like the persecution that many scientists had to endure for claiming that the Earth was not the center of the universe.
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