Text 25841, 80 rader
Skriven 2006-12-19 13:11:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Global warming
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Excellent.  somebody with common sense...

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http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/12/18/prnw.20061218.DCM029.html

British Lord Stings Senators Rockefeller and Snowe: 'Uphold Free Speech or
Resign'
Dec 18 4:58 AM US/Eastern







WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Lord Monckton, Viscount of Brenchley, has
sent an open letter to Senators Rockefeller (D-WV) and Snowe (R-Maine) in
response to their recent open letter telling the CEO of ExxonMobil to cease
funding climate-skeptic scientists.
(http://ff.org/centers/csspp/pdf/20061212_monckton.pdf).

Lord Monckton, former policy adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,
writes: "You defy every tenet of democracy when you invite ExxonMobil to deny
itself the right to provide information to 'senior elected and appointed
government officials' who disagree with your opinion."

In what The Charleston (WV) Daily Mail has called "an intemperate attempt to
squelch debate with a hint of political consequences," Senators Rockefeller and
Snowe released an open letter dated October 30 to ExxonMobil CEO, Rex
Tillerson, insisting he end Exxon's funding of a "climate change denial
campaign." The Senators labeled scientists with whom they disagree as
"deniers," a term usually directed at "Holocaust deniers." Some voices on the
political left have called for the arrest and prosecution of skeptical
scientists. The British Foreign Secretary has said skeptics should be treated
like advocates of Islamic terror and must be denied access to the media.

Responds Lord Monckton, "Sceptics and those who have the courage to support
them are actually helpful in getting the science right. They do not, as you
improperly suggest, 'obfuscate' the issue: they assist in clarifying
it by challenging weaknesses in the 'consensus' argument and they
compel necessary corrections ... "

Lord Monckton's Churchillian reproof continues, "You acknowledge the
effectiveness of the climate sceptics. In so doing, you pay a compliment to the
courage of those free-thinking scientists who continue to research climate
change independently despite the likelihood of refusal of publication in
journals that have taken preconceived positions; the hate mail and vilification
from ignorant environmentalists; and the threat of loss of tenure in
institutions of learning which no longer make any pretence to uphold or cherish
academic freedom."

Of Britain's Royal Society, a State-funded scientific body which, like the
Senators, has publicly leaned on ExxonMobil, Lord Monckton said, "The
Society's long-standing funding by taxpayers does not ensure any greater
purity of motive or rigour of thought than industrial funding of scientists who
dare to question whether 'climate change' will do any harm."

To the Senators' comparison of ExxonMobil's funding of climate
sceptics with tobacco-industry funding of research denying the link between
smoking and lung cancer, Lord Monckton counters, "Your comparison of
Exxon's funding of sceptical scientists and groups with the former antics
of the tobacco industry is unjustifiable and unworthy of any credible elected
representatives. Either withdraw that monstrous comparison forthwith, or resign
so as not to pollute the office you hold."

Concludes Lord Monckton, "I challenge you to withdraw or resign because your
letter is the latest in what appears to be an internationally-coordinated
series of maladroit and malevolent attempts to silence the voices of scientists
and others who have sound grounds, rooted firmly in the peer- reviewed
scientific literature, to question what you would have us believe is the
unanimous agreement of scientists worldwide that global warming will lead to
what you excitedly but unjustifiably call 'disastrous' and
'calamitous' consequences."

SOURCE Center for Science and Public Policy

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