You all know how me and my mates used to gang up on little Georgie 'Moonbat' in the playground on account of him being a prat in specs who spent all his time sucking up to the teachers in the science block. Well, little Georgie has come around and now realises that everything the 'Stinks' in the science lab taught him was rubbish, they were having him on, pulling his little legs, and now he's really upset, and cried:
I have seldom felt so alone.
The true depth of the mean trick that has been perpetrated on him is beginning to sink in:
Confronted with crisis, most of the environmentalists I know have gone into denial. The emails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, they say, are a storm in a tea cup, no big deal, exaggerated out of all recognition.
And he is appalled at his erstwhile friends:
The response of the greens and most of the scientists I know is profoundly ironic, as we spend so much of our time confronting other people's denial. Pretending that this isn't a real crisis isn't going to make it go away. Nor is an attempt to justify the emails with technicalities. We'll be able to get past this only by grasping reality, apologising where appropriate and demonstrating that it cannot happen again.
And the worst perp of the lot is the chief 'Stinks', himself:
One of the most damaging emails was sent by the head of the climatic research unit, Phil Jones. He wrote "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow - even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!" [My emphasis]
Cor, who'da thunk it?!
Anyway, me and my mates are going to lay off little Georgie. He's very, very upset but at least he has had the guts to call it the way it really is - a gigantic scientific scam. Of course, he still believes the basic premise of global warming even if a massive amount of the evidence offered now looks like a huge dollop of steaming tripe which, incidentally, he knows perhaps better than most, having delivered some of it in the past, is now going to be hurled in his direction as he is denounced as a traitor to the cause.
Enough of my heavy-handed humour. I really do admire the intellectual guts it took for him, of all people, to face the damning and damaging facts as presented and the disgraceful re-action of the malefactors. George Monbiot is going to take severe criticism and the only item on the plus side is that he will now find out who his true friends are!
George is smart enough to realise that hands on ears saying "nah nah can't hear" you won't work. However, he's still bought into the whole thing.
His solution is that one of the "team" fall on their swords and that once done the rest can declare "problem solved" and carry on as if nothing had changed. That won't work - many skeptics were in the closet and this event seems to have led to a lot of them coming out.
Posted by: TDK | Friday, 27 November 2009 at 09:17
Yes, TDK, you're right that he is smart enough not to deny the undeniable but even so he's a rarity amongst the HAFs in doing so and he will certainly bring down an enormous amount of flack onto his own head - hence my (not unbounded) admiration.
The big question is whther or not the politicians are picking up on this. Probably not but given that most of them are followers not leaders perhaps they will in time. Mind you, they will be extremely reluctant to forego all those juicy opportunities to raise taxes!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 27 November 2009 at 09:49
The politicians clearly don't believe it. If we really had, what is it now, 15 days to save the planet then they wouldn't be flying anyway, let alone debating the pros and cons of adding a third runway. They wouldn't be demanding reductions in 40 years that they couldn't be held account for, they would be stopping it today.
Still, you are right about Moonbat. Credit for being realistic about the contents. Currently the focus is on "hide the decline". Wait till they start on the "Harry" code comments.
Posted by: TDK | Friday, 27 November 2009 at 12:52
Encouraging news from Australia, though, where 5 Liberals have resigned rather than follow their government's stupid emissions trading scheme:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/25/ripples-of-climategate-being-felt-worldwide-liberal-mps-desert-turnbull-in-australia-over-emissions-trading-scheme/
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 27 November 2009 at 16:49