20 Professors & Scientists Sign Letter Asking Obama to Prosecute Climate-change Skeptics

There is no longer freedom of speech and of thought in America.

It is now a crime to hold a belief or opinion different from those of the Left.

20 academics from U.S. universities and research institutes are signatories to a letter asking Obama to prosecute Americans who are skeptical of man-made ~~global warming~~ climate change.

The 8 universities and 2 research institutes are, in alphabetical order:

Atmospheric Research
Columbia University
Florida State University
George Mason University
National Center for Atmospheric Research
Rutgers University
University of Maryland
University of Miami
University of Texas
University of Washington

Below is the letter, which you can also read for yourself by going here. I’ve added the professional titles of the signers.

Letter to President Obama, Attorney General Lynch, and OSTP Director Holdren

September 1, 2015

Dear President Obama, Attorney General Lynch, and [White House Office of Science & Technology] OSTP Director Holdren,

As you know, an overwhelming majority of climate scientists are convinced about the potentially serious adverse effects of human-induced climate change on human health, agriculture, and biodiversity. We applaud your efforts to regulate emissions and the other steps you are taking. Nonetheless, as climate scientists we are exceedingly concerned that America’s response to climate change – indeed, the world’s response to climate change – is insufficient. The risks posed by climate change, including increasing extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and increasing ocean acidity – and potential strategies for addressing them – are detailed in the Third National Climate Assessment (2014), Climate Change Impacts in the United States. The stability of the Earth’s climate over the past ten thousand years contributed to the growth of agriculture and therefore, a thriving human civilization. We are now at high risk of seriously destabilizing the Earth’s climate and irreparably harming people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people.

We appreciate that you are making aggressive and imaginative use of the limited tools available to you in the face of a recalcitrant Congress. One additional tool – recently proposed by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse [D-Rhode Island]– is a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) investigation of corporations and other organizations that have knowingly deceived the American people about the risks of climate change, as a means to forestall America’s response to climate change. The actions of these organizations have been extensively documented in peer-reviewed academic research (Brulle, 2013) and in recent books including: Doubt is their Product (Michaels, 2008), Climate Cover-Up (Hoggan & Littlemore, 2009), Merchants of Doubt (Oreskes & Conway, 2010), The Climate War (Pooley, 2010), and in The Climate Deception Dossiers (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2015). We strongly endorse Senator Whitehouse’s call for a RICO investigation.

The methods of these organizations are quite similar to those used earlier by the tobacco industry. A RICO investigation (1999 to 2006) played an important role in stopping the tobacco industry from continuing to deceive the American people about the dangers of smoking. If corporations in the fossil fuel industry and their supporters are guilty of the misdeeds that have been documented in books and journal articles, it is imperative that these misdeeds be stopped as soon as possible so that America and the world can get on with the critically important business of finding effective ways to restabilize the Earth’s climate, before even more lasting damage is done.

Sincerely,

Jagadish Shukla, Professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Edward Maibach, Director of Center for Climate Change Communication, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Paul Dirmeyer, Professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Barry Klinger, Associate Professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Paul Schopf, Professor and Chair of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
David Straus, Professor of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Edward Sarachik, Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
John Michael Wallace, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Alan Robock, Professor of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Eugenia Kalnay, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
William Lau, Senior Research Scientist at Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Kevin Trenberth, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO
T.N. Krishnamurti, Professor Emeritus of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Vasu Misra, Associate Professor of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Ben Kirtman, Professor, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami, Miami, FL
Robert Dickinson, Professor of Geological Sciences, University of Texas, Austin, TX
Michela Biasutti, Assistant Research Professor, Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY
Mark Cane, Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences, Columbia University, New York, NY
Lisa Goddard, Adjunct Associate Professor, Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY
Alan Betts, Independent Researcher at Atmospheric Research, Pittsford, VT

~End of letter~

In their letter, the above 20 academics and research scientists present man-made climate change as a certified truth — “an overwhelming majority of climate scientists are convinced about the potentially serious adverse effects of human-induced climate change”.

That is not true, according to a 2013 survey reported in the peer-reviewed journal, Organization Studies. The survey found that:

Only a minority (36%) of geoscientists (aka earth scientists) and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis.
By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.
Geoscientists and engineers hold similar views as meteorologists.
Two recent surveys of meteorologists (summarized here and here) revealed similar skepticism of man-made global warming claims.