The Hobart Mercury’s Peter Boyer attacks skeptics.
In the past couple of weeks, some have claimed that the deliberate campaign to discredit the scientific evidence for human-induced climate change amounts to a crime against humanity, whose perpetrators should be punished accordingly.
In light of the damage done, this position seems perfectly reasonable.
He does oppose this action however, but not because of the obvious assault on free speech.
Criminal action is a satisfying idea, but it’ll never work. It would only strengthen the conviction of doubters and potentially make them into martyrs.
Boyer also:
- claimed that Muller was a skeptic
- ignored the debate surrounding BEST, including the disagreement with co-author Judith Curry
- dismissed climategate as “now discredited” (he doesn’t say why, but I suspect he blindly accepted the results of the rather superficial inquiries)
- said skeptics responded to BEST with “muted resentment (and) undisguised fury”, whereas he was laughed off for claiming the ground for skepticism had ended despite admitting they didn’t consider causation
Climate Nonconformist 
Good idea not to forget who the person was who made the words “crimes against humanity” famous in relation to global warming. Those three words are repeated four times in anti-skeptic book author Ross Gelbspan’s 2004 “Boiling Point” ( http://books.google.com/books?id=NLzgunts0aAC&pg=PA13&q=crime against humanity ), and its chapter 3 is titled “Criminals Against Humanity”.
For those unaware of it, I detail how Gelbspan and his association with the enviro-activist group Ozone Action amounts to the epicenter of the efforts to smear skeptic scientists with the unsupported accusation that they are corrupted by fossil fuel funding. See “The Great Global Warming Ponzi Scheme – how the mainstream media keeps it alive” http://www.redstate.com/russellc/2011/08/17/the-great-global-warming-ponzi-scheme-how-the-mainstream-media-keeps-it-alive/
You made it to Climate Depot! Congrats!
Thanks Michael.
How many times in the past have so called skeptical ideas become mainstream science. Many, many from causes of cholera to plate tectonics all have been condemned until the truth eventually hit the main stream pseudoscience believers.
I’ll throw in a few more. Daniel Shechtman was regarded as a crank for his discoveries about quasi-crystals. He won the Nobel Prize. Barry Marshall was likewise vilified for suggesting H. pylori causes stomach ulcers. He is now also a Nobel laureate. In 1931, a book was published that boasted one hundred scientists who said Einstein was wrong about relativity. There’s also Charles Darwin and evolution, Galileo and his astronomical observations.
Boyer, you’re an idiot when you think the truth is a crime against humanity. But, keep it up, it defines the AGW crowd very accurately.
Pingback: Climate Fool of the Week #18 | Climate Nonconformist