Intimidation tactics against climate scientists
“I have been subject to all sorts of personal attacks, threats to my safety, my life, threats to my family, and it’s not just me, it’s
dozens of climate scientists in the US, in Australia and many other regions of the world where our findings are finding that climate change is real and potentially poses a threat to civilisation if we don’t confront that challenge. That represents a threat to certain vested interests and they’ve tried hard to discredit the science, often by discrediting and intimidating the scientists. “
VIDEO http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3454652.htm Climatologist slams intimidation of scientists Australian Broadcasting Corporation Broadcast: 15/03/2012
Reporter: Emma Alberici Climatologist and director of the Earth System Science Centre in Pennsylvania State University Michael Mann joins Lateline.
Transcript
EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Climate Commission’s latest report says
global average temperatures have continued to rise over the last
decade. It’s all part of the research that started more than 20 years
ago in the United States. The lead climate scientist in much of that
work was Michael Mann. Mann says he’s the central object of attack in
what some have characterised as the best funded, most carefully
orchestrated assault on science the world has known…..
EMMA ALBERICI: Now you’ve just published a book called The Hockey
Stick and the Climate Wars and I have to say it’s a book that reads
much more like a thriller than a scientific textbook. You’ve had death
threats and charges that you misappropriated funds. On one occasion
you went to work and were greeted by the FBI. Tell us what happened
there…..
I have been subject to all sorts of personal attacks, threats to my safety, my life, threats to my family, and it’s not just me, it’s
dozens of climate scientists in the US, in Australia and many other regions of the world where our findings are finding that climate change is real and potentially poses a threat to civilisation if we don’t confront that challenge. That represents a threat to certain vested interests and they’ve tried hard to discredit the science, often by discrediting and intimidating the scientists. Unfortunately
it’s not all that new a tactic. We saw the same thing back in the
1970s, 1980s with tobacco, with the tobacco industry trying to
discredit research establishing adverse health impacts of their
product. It’s an old tactic and it’s now being used to try to
discredit climate science, mainly coming from vested interests who
don’t want to see us shift away from our current reliance on fossil
fuels because they – understandably, they profit greatly from our
current addiction to fossil fuels…….
trace much of the attacks against climate science and climate
scientists to various organisations and front groups that derive most
of their funding from the fossil fuel industry and what they often do
is issue press releases attacking mainstream science. They publish –
they have folks publish op.’ eds attacking climate scientists. They
sort of create what some have called an echo chamber of climate change
denial that permeates the airwaves and our media and it’s been a real
challenge for scientists, for the scientific community to try to
communicate the very real nature of the climate change threat in the
face of this fairly massive disinformation campaign……
ustralia faces many of the same threats from climate change that we
face here in the US: rising sea level and loss of coastal settlement
and erosion of our coastlines. In the case of Australia, a very real
threat to the health of one of the world’s great natural wonders, the
Great Barrier Reef, increasing drought in certain regions and
increasing flooding in other regions. What we’re seeing play out in
Australia and in the US and around the world are the very scenarios
that we predicted decades ago, that the models told us we would be
seeing: increasing heat, more frequent extreme heat in all the major
continents of the world and we’re seeing all of this play out. So, if
you actually take the projections of future climate change under an
assumption that we don’t do anything to deal with the problem,
so-called business as usual, then what we see by the middle of this
century – my colleague James Hanson has referred to as a scenario
where the Earth will be a fundamentally different planet from the one
that we grew up on, and it has deeply ethical consequences. The
decisions we’re making today about our fossil fuel emissions are gonna
determine the world that we leave our children and grandchildren and
there isn’t a whole lotta time to act if we are going to avert some of
the more damaging impacts of future climate change in Australia, in
the US and in the rest of the world….
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3454652.htm
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1.This month.
Zoom webinar – “Nuclear Winter: The Environmental Consequences of a Nuclear Exchange.”
April 7th at 11:30 am PST / 2:30 pm EST
Nuclear Winter: The Environmental Consequences of a Nuclear Exchange”
Join us for an informative webinar with renowned atmospheric scientist, Professor Brian Toon, as he discusses the environmental risks and global impacts of a nuclear war. Despite the potential damage caused by the blast from even small nuclear weapons, many countries continue to invest in and expand nuclear arsenals. Professor Toon will provide a scientific assessment of civilian fatalities, agricultural failures, climate concerns, and complications with food supply that would follow any international nuclear conflict. We need to plan how to prevent nuclear conflict and avoid catastrophe. Politicians and military planners must be made aware of global climate and agricultural complications that would ensue. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from, and engage in, this vital conversation
The Road to War brings a sharp focus to why it is not in Australia’s best interest to be dragged into a war with China which will almost inevitably go nuclear very quickly. The filmmaker has interviewed some of Australia’s senior foreign policy analysts who have vast experience behind them in analysing what really is going on here as the United States rattles its sabres with China. And sets us up to be its proxy, like the poor Ukranians have been fed into the Meatgrinder. So America can remain the Top Dog. The Road to War reveals how the United States through its spy base at Pine Gap and by stationing six nuclear capable B52 bombers in the Top End (without permission from the traditional owners) is making Australia a prime nuclear target if the current war of words suddenly melts down into full scale war.
The Road to War shows the implicit connection between Carbon emissions (the US military uses a whopping 70% of America’s annual petroleum to move its armies and vast War Machine around the globe to its 800+ military bases..but under a loophole wangled at Kyoto, the US military does not have to report its C02 annual emissions). The Road to War starts screening at selected cities and regional centres in March. See the trailer end for details.
Antinuclear 
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