Anthony's Science Blog

Climate deniers

Since I generally ignore climate deniers, I was surprised a month or so ago to see how bold and numerous they have become. This article is obviously bad – amusingly referring to the “Nature Journal of Science” (aka Nature) – but what really struck me was the comments, starring bogeyman Al Gore:

is somebody going to volunteer to call al? let me do it, i want to see his face, please, pretty please?

Algore’s “anthropogenic global warming” will go down as the greatest hoax ever perpetrated. Only in The Age of Stupidity™, ushered in by liberals over the last decade, could a large segment of the population be fooled into believing that their breath [co2 that plants absorb and is a building block of life], which amounts to less than 1/2 of 1%, will destroy the planet, kill polar bears and make puppies orphans.

The whole GW religion is imploding! While I’m happy it is, I really don’t think it will impact the idiots that vote for the left.

The Man-made Global Warming Crowd must be charged with a Crime… every one of them…. every last one.
Their words on TV and in print, and even their posts on-line can now be used against them, they must be found, and they must be put in prison.

alGore’s gonn’a sweat like a man-bear-pig NOW!!!

From these comments, it looks like there is a whole subculture of deniers with well established attitudes and memes. This strikes me as a different animal than just a few corporate-funded hacks sowing doubt at the behest of their overlords; instead, the tone of the comments suggests a hippie-bashing type of attitude adopted for the purposes of internet recreation. Juxtapose this sort of thing with corporate greenwashing and I’d have to say that Krugman hits the nail on the head:

You have various right-wingers simultaneously (a) denying that global warming is happening (b) denying that anyone denies that global warming is happening, but denying that humans are responsible (c) denying that anyone denies that humans are causing global warming, insisting that the real argument is about the appropriate response.