Leading climate scientists do not, as a rule, debate with climate deniers, for the same reason that Richard Dawkins does not debate with Creationists – the mere fact of appearing on the same platform elevates the creationists, and debases the science.
In this case, Dr. Michael Mann was invited on a BBC broadcast without the explicit understanding that climate denier Marc Morano would be on the same broadcast on a separate line.
You can listen to this 6 minute segment, and hear Morano’s well practiced Gish Galloping bluster, while Mann listens quietly until the host has to silence Morano.
Then listen for the Mike to quietly, methodically, open a can of calm, laser-focused whupass.
For another approach, see my own interview with Morano at the 2012 Heartland conference below.
The video above contains some pieces from my video documenting the 2012 Heartland Institute Climate Conference in Chicago – including some clips that did not make the original cut. I wanted originally to spotlight Heartland’s focus on destroying the American Public School system, as you can see.
For the last 40 years, the ‘conservative” movement has attempted to further it’s ends by manipulating the most virulent, ignorant, and fanatical elements of the fundamentalist Christian right. We can see in today’s Republican party how well that strategy has worked out. The same people think they can use the fanatical Christian right as a trojan horse – to move Anti science, Climate denial disinformation into the school system under the shadow of the “Teach the Controversy” Creationism movement.
It’s School Choice Week – celebrating the right of your children to be taught that the earth might be 5 billion, or 5000 years old, and to make up their own minds about the science. They will also have the right to be taught that maybe the last 150 years of physics is wrong, heat seeking missiles don’t really seek heat, CO2 lasers don’t really lase, and heat trapping gases can’t really trap heat – that they should “think for themselves”, and, well, listen to Rush Limbaugh instead of the National Academy.
The celebration is supported by a rogues gallery of the usual suspect right wing think tanks, like the Heartland Institute, Cato, Freedomworks, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Why would a group of far right wing, mostly libertarian, Ayn Randian types be in bed with the tongue talkers and snake handlers of the creationist movement?
All across the country—most recently, in the state of Texas—local battles over the teaching of evolution are taking on a new complexion. More and more, it isn’t just evolution under attack, it’s also the teaching of climate science. The National Center for Science Education, the leading group defending the teaching of evolution across the country, has even broadened its portfolio: Now it protects climate education too.
How did these issues get wrapped up together?
There is the “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” theory. In other words, anti-evolutionists and climate deniers were both getting dumped on so much by the scientific community that they sort of naturally joined forces. And that makes sense: We know that in general, people gather their issue stances in bunches, because those stances travel together in a group (often under the aegis of a political party)
But there’s also the “declining trust in science” theory, according to which political conservatives have, in general, become distrustful of the scientific community (we have data showing this is the case), and this has infected how they think about several different politicized scientific issues. And who knows: Perhaps the distrust started with the evolution issue. It is easy to imagine how a Christian conservative who thinks liberal scientists are full of it on evolution would naturally distrust said scientists on other issues as well.
United States History – Heritage of Freedom In Christian Perspective, Third Edition; A Beka Book, copyright 2009, Pensacola Christian College.
