Climate McCarthyism « John Stossel

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November 11, 2009 11:46 AM EST by John Stossel

Climate McCarthyism

I've been following the hysterical reaction of the Global Warming Church towards the authors of Super Freakonomics. Much of the hysteria was whipped up by Climate Progress blogger Joe Romm who attempted to discredit the book by smearing the authors. As I said before, if you don’t agree with global warming orthodoxy, you face personal attacks.

Reason's Ron Bailey alerts me to another phrase for this kind of intimidation: Climate McCarthyism. The phrase was coined by Ted Nordhaus and Michael Schellenberger, unconventional liberal environmentalists who blog at the Breakthrough Institute, to compare the free speech chilling smear tactics of global warming zealots to the communist witch hunts conducted by Sen. Joe McCarthy during the Cold War. They call Joe Romm the "Climate McCarthyite-in-Chief":

Joe Romm's "Global Warming Deniers and Delayers" play the same role as Joe McCarthy's "Communists and Communist sympathizers." While Romm built a loyal liberal and environmentalist following for attacking right-wing "global warming deniers" -- a designation meant to invoke "Holocaust denier" -- he spends much of his time attacking well-meaning journalists (e.g. here, here, and here), academics (here and here) and activists (here, here and here) who take the issue of global warming seriously, accept climate science, and support immediate action to address it. His aim is to intimidate and prevent increasing numbers of people from questioning climate policy orthodoxy, and especially Democratic efforts to pass cap and trade climate legislation.

... Think about it: If you're an ambitious young Democratic Hill staffer, a liberal policy analyst, or a struggling young reporter, why would you ever stand up to a guy who is famous for first trashing people to their editors, employers and funders in private emails, and then, if that doesn't work, in public blogs? Why would you challenge someone who seems to have so much of the liberal establishment on his side?

... This is the state of liberal debate about climate change. ... Those who stand up to Joe Romm find themselves turned into projection screens by an angry and vindictive bully...There will always be bullies like Joe Romm -- they are not the problem. It is the the establishment figures who goad them on, and the bystanders who could speak up but do not....

Good for Nordhaus and Shellenberger for standing up to it. They have another post here.

10 Comments

Merrill

It doesn't matter what we "believe". What is important are the facts and the facts do not support the idea that human behavior is causing significant impact on global warming. That being said, the pollutants we spew into the air are damaging to our health. So, if you want to get behind cleaning up the environment for that reason, more power to you. But, don't be pushing carbon pollutant reduction to reduce global warming.

November 11, 2009 at 9:33 pm

(1 Reply)

David

Common sense left this argument some time ago. It doesn't take a scientist to tell you that oil is product of the CO2 that used to be in the air. Algae love CO2. They eat it, die and sink to the bottom of the ocean taking that carbon with them. Add in a few million years and you get oil. The reality is, when measured in millions of years, CO2 has never been LOWER than today. The real long-term threat to life on this planet is LACK of CO2 thanks to the algae.

November 11, 2009 at 7:39 pm

Doug

Wakeup America! Global Warming may save us from the coming ice age. The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and hence clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor,and critic (1880-1956)

November 11, 2009 at 7:29 pm

Rob

The reason they do not want anyone to challenge is because this is their route to control of your every move. So trash the messenger in order to invalidate your arguement, but never argue the facts!

November 11, 2009 at 7:22 pm

Boyd

I firmly believe that the climate changes without any significant influence of mankind. I fully support improving our stewardship responsibilities as assigned by God in Genesis. Liberals are using the global warming hoax as a means to impose their twisted views aginst capitalism and freedom as envisoned by our nation's founders. It is the ultimate expression of humanism's consumate pride and ego to think we control the planet. God controls everything including allowing the wacko liberals.

November 11, 2009 at 3:53 pm

Dave Ball

Has any one thought of putting people to work for real by burying the ultilies in this country. All those poles and wires going down every time there is bad weather. New developments have everything underground. Start in rural America and move toward the cities. Can you imagine the number of people it would take to do this and the time it would take??? Real work for real Americans...

November 11, 2009 at 3:04 pm

Jack

If we stopped all CO2 emmissions, what would all the plants and trees do, and if they died out, where would be get our O2 from? Any climatologist worth his or her salt will tell you that you cannot forecast climate. You can forecast the weather, which meteorologists don't always do too accurately, so how do they think they can forecast climate change (the new term for Global Warming, which isn't really happening as forecast).

November 11, 2009 at 3:00 pm

ziemke

Ever hear of the Venona Project... look it up. Turns out Sen. McCarthy was right (He was a Republican... obviously... trying to protect America and all). Romm is wrong and Global warming has become an obvious liberal lie. Liberals are now desperatly trying to defend another one of their many lies, which sounds all to familiar to me (I think Clinton did this :)... duh... smearing the opposition haha... Democrats out there! stop lying to us and yourselves, it's not healthy).

November 11, 2009 at 12:49 pm