FollowUp 9: Republican Denial of Climate Change

In the seventh follow up of this series, I discussed how the Wall Street Journal had published an error-filled denial of climate change by sixteen scientists, an article that was called "dismal science" by two hundred and fifty-five scientists who are in the field of climate change.  Science Magazine published the truth when the Wall Street Journal, a subsidiary of News Corp., refused to do so.

Yesterday another subsidiary of News Corp., Fox News, published an Opinion piece by Matt Patterson, a commentator for the anti-environment Competitive Enterprise Institute, that relies on the discredited article from the Wall Street Journal.

[R]ecently in the Wall Street Journal 16 prominent scientists, including physicists, meteorologists and climatologists, came forward to express solidarity with Giaever, writing:

“…large numbers of scientists, many very prominent, share the opinions of Dr. Giaever. And the number of scientific “heretics” is growing with each passing year. The reason is a collection of stubborn scientific facts. Perhaps the most inconvenient fact is the lack of global warming for well over 10 years now. This is known to the warming establishment, as one can see from the 2009 “Climategate” email of climate scientist Kevin Trenberth: ‘The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.’”

So why do so many still cling to the hope of climate change catastrophe? The scientists offer their own view in the Journal: 

“Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow.”

Fortunately this strange fever is breaking, and voters are becoming ever more suspicious of government-mandated schemes to control their “carbon emissions,” which is just a bureaucrat’s way of curbing productivity, and therefore liberty.

In centuries hence the global warming boogeyman will be seen for exactly what it is – The Great Delusion. Future generations will wonder how so many people could have believed something so suicidally ridiculous.

The more times a lie is told, the more it is likely to be believed.  News Corp. keeps telling this lie.  The Republican contenders for President have all picked up the lie and run with it.  The proof is readily available, including from scientists who once doubted whether climate change was real.

1 October 2011, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.
10 October 2011, FollowUp 1.
11 October 2011, FollowUp 2.
17 October 2011, FollowUp 3.
21 October 2011, FollowUp 4.
27 October 2011, FollowUp 5.
30 November 2011, FollowUp 6.
29 January 2012, FollowUp 7.
15 February 2012, FollowUp 8.

2 March 2012, FollowUp 10.
11 March 2012, FollowUp 11.
4 June 2012, FollowUp 12.