Monday, March 17, 2014

Question AGW, Go to Prison

Headline:
Professor Calls For Climate Change ‘Deniers’ To Be Imprisoned
Wants to criminalize questioning of the science on global warming


"A professor with Rochester Institute of Technology has called for the incarceration of any American who actively disagrees that climate change is solely caused by human activity.

Lawrence Torcello, a philosophy professor with a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo, published the comments as part of an essay submitted to the academic website The Conversation.

Torcello argues that malignant individuals, who he does not identify, are collectively organising a “campaign funding misinformation” about climate change. Torcello goes on to suggest that such activity “ought to be considered criminally negligent.”

Adding that “science misinformation” surrounding climate change should be considered a crime, Torcello asks readers to “Consider cases in which science communication is intentionally undermined for political and financial gain.”

He then goes on to cite a case in Italy where six scientists were jailed for failing to “clearly communicate risks to the public” about living in an earthquake zone.

“Imagine if in L’Aquila, scientists themselves had made every effort to communicate the risks of living in an earthquake zone,” Torcello states, asking the reader to consider the consequences if malevolent “financiers” of a “denialist campaign” “funded an organised campaign to discredit the consensus findings of seismology, and for that reason no preparations were made.”

“I submit that this is just what is happening with the current, well documented funding of global warming denialism,” Torcello asserts.

“Climate denial remains a serious deterrent against meaningful political action in the very countries most responsible for the crisis.” the professor adds.

Torcello also addresses the fact that his demands clearly run in opposition to protected free speech under the First Amendment, and as part of other nations’ laws, calling for legal systems to be “updated” by governments. “We must make the critical distinction between the protected voicing of one’s unpopular beliefs, and the funding of a strategically organised campaign to undermine the public’s ability to develop and voice informed opinions,” he writes.

According to a Gallup poll conducted earlier this month, two thirds of Americans do not believe that the colder temperatures the country has been experiencing is related to human-caused climate change or global warming, (see video above) instead believing that normal seasonal variations are at play.

The “scientific consensus” on the matter says that human activity is a factor in temperature changes, thus under Torcello’s “updated” law, two thirds of Americans would be at risk of being deemed as criminals for expressing these beliefs.
There could well come a time, not even that far off, when the Left will outlaw dissent completely. Right now, it is pretty much limited to academic rants, with only a few senators on board, and a complete administration, and maybe half the Supreme Court. The First Amendment only ever applied to the Left, and then only when they were the minority, not having completed the maleducation of sufficient generations of victimized youth. Now the First Amendment, like other problem amendments (2nd and 10th come to mind) just get in the way of Humanizing the Globe.

2 comments:

Robert Coble said...

The demand for lock-step orthodoxy runs directly counter to the methods of science qua science. Yet those who demand religious adherence to politically correct orthodoxy on scientific issues tout themselves as the apostles of reason and particularly, of science.

I'm beginning to be convinced that this mindset is a mental disorder, if not outright insanity. Unfortunately, it is the one disorder, syndrome or disease that will NEVER be put into the DSM-V, because those involved have this disorder, and are thus completely blind to it.

I am reminded of this old story.

A powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad.

The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, which the magician had not managed to poison.

The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health.

The policemen and inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water, and they thought the king’s decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them.

When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched on the castle and called for his abdication.

In despair the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying:
‘Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.’

The king and the queen drank the water of madness and immediately began talking nonsense.
Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to continue ruling the country?


And now you know the effect of drinking the Potomac Kool-Aid...

yonose said...

Robert,

This is actually known as "Science as Credo".

(Do not Disturb the Academic Elite of Scientific Establishment, or they may begin with the witch-hunt. Remember, is the whole year long :) )

Kind Regards.