ClimateGate scandal Demonstrates Intellectual Protectionism of Modern Scientists

[Peace4us]

(NaturalNews) The inconvenient release of private email conversations among climate change scientists has been a boon for climate change skeptics. What emerges from the leaked emails is a depiction of a group of scientists who practice "intellectual protectionism" -- meaning they know they're right and they'll do anything to protect their beliefs, even if it means hiding or manipulating data.

Sound familiar? Scientists in the pharmaceutical industry have been practicing this for decades. If you think the ClimateGate emails are revealing, just imagine what kind of similar emails are flying around between Big Pharma scientists who routinely manipulate study data and commit scientific fraud in the name of medicine. Time and time again, we see revelations of manipulated clinical trials where data was intentionally distorted in order to make a dangerous, useless drug appear to be safe and effective.

What ClimateGate scientists and Big Pharma scientists have in common is that they have both abandoned the core principles of good science in their quest to be right. Rather than asking questions of nature and humbly listening to the answers provided by the data, these scientists have staked out a position and decided to defend that position at all costs -- even if it requires hiding or distorting data!

That approach is entirely unscientific, of course. In my mind, it now puts much of the recent global warming science in the same category as Big Pharma's research: Pure quackery.

As Christopher Booker explains in The Telegraph, "The reason why even the Guardian's George Monbiot has expressed total shock and dismay at the picture revealed by the documents is that their authors are not just any old bunch of academics. Their importance cannot be overestimated. What we are looking at here is the small group of scientists who have for years been more influential in driving the worldwide alarm over global warming than any others, not least through the role they play at the heart of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)." (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/...)

The rest of the story

http://www.naturalnews.com/027620_ClimateGate_global_warming.html


My take on it is that this could hurt the whole environmental movement in a big way, which is a shame. I would plead with all scientists to put aside their political agendas when doing research, as the truth is always a better beacon to follow, no matter how motivated one is by their cause.

[truedelphi]

1. I have stepped away fromt environmental movement because of so much of what is going on

The Corporations now own the environmental movement. And people house little slogans that are quite jingoistic inside their brains.

The huge van I drive affords me countless disdain from the more "environmentally aware." But I cannot afford a Prius, and my small Toyota is "A great little car, but right now my mechanic cannot figure out why it won't run. ( I take the bus a lot, and really restrict my driving.)

One of the women who pooh pooh's my van just set up a contract so her woodlands is converted to vineyards - and while the homeowners in Calif. have restricted warer use, the vintners can use as much water as they want - and are free to spray countles tons of pesticide to erode water quality as well!

But she doesn't consider her woodlands' conversion bad - its conversion allows her to drive a Prius!

[mike_c]

2. that is part of the first lecture I give my ecology students....

Science is rarely advanced by personal agendas.

[def66]

3. Unfortunate

It's unfortunate that the whole global warming movement has been proven to be a fraud.

[jwirr]

4. The whole movement? Who are you kidding? One study does not

make a whole movement. You sound like a repug talking point.

[def66]

8. Too bad people with your attitude can hurt the party

First of all, I'm a democrat, and if people are to take the party seriously it shouldn't lean on any science for political gain, including global warming. The global warming movement has been a fraud from the beginning, filled with lies and distortions, and now the revelation of emails from the "scientists" at the pinnacle; the top of the global warming pyramid have engaged in out and out fraud the entire time even manipulating what "peer" review actually is. Saying that it is "repug" talking point, just emphasizes that this is a politically motivated issue, predicated on junk science and not really about global warming at all. I don't want people talking about the Democratic party as being the "flat earthers", which they will be if it relies on this scientific quackery for political gain.

[PhilosopherKing]

21. Nice try flat -Earther

You are not fooling people on DU.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Bullshit.

[kestrel91316]

7. EPIC FAIL. Enjoy your stay. And your soon-to-be-ended paid gig.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Wacko global warming denialism

I guess we're in for another flood of posts of this sort.

[timeforpeace]

9. Britain's Met Office has announced a three year review of all climate data as a result. Link below.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6945445.ece

[jwirr]

12. A review is good science. Whenever there is a question there is

a need for a review. This does not mean that there is no proof only that one study has been called on questionable practices. Anyone who has bothered to read about the work of scientists realizes that there is always controversy - that is the name of the game.

What there is little question about is weather changes. Australia is burning up as is our own southeast. Droughts are everywhere. Monster storms are frequent now. Is all that data to be ignored.

[JonQ]

22. The science is not in question

we have a consensus, anyone who doubts this is owned by exxon, any review of the data, or even requesting the data is tantamount to heresy.

[Andronex]

10. The whole point of the co2 global warming evangelism...

is to create a cap and trade scheme, the key word being trade. A global co2 emission market that will administered by international banking interests and controlled by wealthy countries and industries who will be able to afford the penalties, while poorer nations will be forced to use inefficient and costly alternatives. The added taxes will put an extra burden on the average citizens and all aspect human activity will be subject to review by our trusted leaders, this is about power and control and nothing else.

[Tutankhamun]

11. Yes, the vast majority of the world's scientists have, for more than

a decade, been resting their reputations and their entire careers on a flimsy, transparent scheme designed to push forth a distant and obscure piece of business legislation. You are a true genius.

Shouldn't you be watching Glenn Beck right now? I'm sure Free Republic misses you.

[jwirr]

13. LOL. They really are reaching. So afraid that their bosses will lose

something in Copenhagen.

[Andronex]

15. I would not waste a second listening to Glen Beck...

but many at DU it seems are captivated by this buffoon.

"In a report titled "The First Global Revolution" (1991) published by the Club of Rome, we find the following statement:

"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill.... All these dangers are caused by human intervention... The real enemy, then, is humanity itself."

[JonQ]

24. He is a common boogey man on here

say something a person doesn't like, well glenn beck said something similiar (it seems those who hate him the most listen to him all the time) therefore you are just like glenn beck therefore I win.

It's childish and idiotic, but you'll get used to it.

[JonQ]

23. How much government funding

has been dedicated to scientists who question the official line?

The funds allocated to MMGW proponents has grown in to a multi-billion dollar industry.

[mgc1961]

14. The denialists are on the move.

Despite what happened in the UK, East Anglia is not the only scientific body on the planet to reach the well founded scientific conclusion that climate change is not a global change of season but a man made catastrophe that creeps closer by the day while numbskulls line up to tell us why we shouldn't do one damned thing about the on-going ruination of our atmosphere.

God, I *almost* hope to live long enough to see their reaction to inaction when the truth dawns on them that they screwed themselves.

Almost.

[Andronex]

16. "The denialists are on the move."

As in Holocaust deniers... even the language is coached in a way to effect an emotional response, and stop any discussion of the scientific merit of co2 based global warming. The real climate deniers are those who will not recognize that we have been in a warming period for the past 200 years and that climate change is a constant feature in the evolution of this planet long before man's appearance. Levels of co2 in the atmosphere follows global warming, it does not precede it and man's contribution is negligible compared to what is produced naturally.

[notesdev]

17. I pointed that out the other day

I got two responses, both vehemently angry... the first insisted that couldn't possibly be the case, the second said yes people who disagree with the fabricated "consensus" were the equivalent of Nazis.

The really funny part is that they both came from the same person!

You have to realize what we are dealing with here. It's a doomsday cult, and like any cult this is the way they react when their dogma is challenged or doubted.

[mgc1961]

18. Whatever you say.

http://www.peterrussell.dreamhosters.com/Odds/WorldClock.php

[mgc1961]

19. If you say so.

See below.

[JonQ]

25. My first thought

on the "denier" language was that it sounded very religious. A person who questions jesus being the son of god is not merely a skeptic to a devote christian, but someone who denies christ.

In that regard I think the term is absolutely appropriate. It puts skeptics in the place of heretics for the religion of manmade global warming. An apt analogy I would say. I enjoy being a heretic.

[PaulaFarrell]

27. The analogy is apt

In that, two groups of people, in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, refuse to believe the truth, and come up with ever more convoluted reasoning to dismiss aforesaid evidence, including complicated conspiracy theories involving world domination by sinister groups of people.

[Andronex]

28. It's good to know that one side has a monopoly on the truth.

So it's understandable the these "scientists" did not have to do any honest research, just manipulate the data to fit the conclusion. For the co2 global warming following it is the typical reaction to accuse anyone who disagree to be a paid off agents, so your reference to conspiracy's is ironic to say the least. Still when the corporate media promotes the co2 agenda 24/7 any rational person should at least question the motives behind that hype.

[Hestia]

29. Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere -

just today we have this report from CNN http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/06/indonesia.burning.rainforest/index.html

Already 85 percent of Sumatra's forests are gone. What is left is vanishing at an alarming rate -- an area the size of 50 football fields disappears every hour, according to Greenpeace and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Caught in the crosshairs are small villages like Teluk Meranti.

The village lies on Sumatra's Kampar River. As dawn breaks, fishermen set out into the morning haze. The riverbanks slowly come to life as residents bathe and brush their teeth in its waters. The morning calm is broken by children's shrieks as they lather their bodies before jumping in.

"The communities here recognize how important the forest is to them. They use the wood to make their homes, their fishing boats," says Bustar Maitar, a Greenpeace campaigner. "If the forest is gone, it means their livelihood is gone."

What is at stake is much more than that, environmental groups say. The peat soil of the Kampar Peninsula holds more carbon than anywhere else in the world. Greenpeace estimates that if this whole peninsula, some 1.7 million acres (700,000 hectares), is taken over by plantations the carbon dioxide released would be the equivalent of 1.6 billion transatlantic flights.

It's not just your HVAC and cars, it's bring up all the coal in the world to be burned to run your HVAC and other appliances at the same time. Either Discovery Channel or HBO explain's it a few words so that even children can understand how this raising CO2 levels in our atmosphere. It's all being done under the guise of free markets and fair trade. Killing everyone while a few make monetary gains. Don't worry, this will affect you, your church and friends. No one is immune if there is a global catastrophe. It looks like you just might see it in your lifetime, rather than your childs.

[roseBudd]

20. Except the glaciers are still melting, the sea is still rising but dangerous drugs still kill

so no comparison.

It's like the adage, who you going to believe, me or your lying eyes. The syes still see what they see.

My tomatoes did not exzperience a hard frost until December. In zone 6.

[irislake]

26. The fossil fuel industry must be rejoicing.