Prince Charles is a “global warming Nazi” and, apparently, so is U.S. President Barack Obama.
That’s according to Dr. Roy Spencer, one of the world’s most often cited deniers of the risks of human-caused climate change.
In a blog post titled “Time to push back against the global warming Nazis,” Dr Spencer of the University of Alabama, Huntsville, wrote that he had made a decision about anyone who used the term “denier” to describe … well… deniers of the threats of human-caused climate change.
He’s going to call them “Global warming Nazis.”
Spencer wrote:
When politicians and scientists started calling people like me “deniers”, they crossed the line. They are still doing it.
They indirectly equate (1) the skeptics’ view that global warming is not necessarily all manmade nor a serious problem, with (2) the denial that the Nazi’s extermination of millions of Jews ever happened.
Too many of us for too long have ignored the repulsive, extremist nature of the comparison. It’s time to push back.
I’m now going to start calling these people “global warming Nazis”.
Spencer later added a note, which said:
A couple people in comments have questioned my use of “Nazi”, which might be considered over the top. Considering the fact that these people are supporting policies that will kill far more people than the Nazis ever did — all in the name of what they consider to be a righteous cause — I think it is very appropriate. Again, I didn’t start the name-calling.
So who else, apart from Prince Charles and U.S. President Barack Obama, will Roy Spencer be branding as “global warming Nazis” because they’ve used the term “denier”?
UK climate policy advisor Sir Nicholas Stern – he’s a “global warming Nazi”. So is Al Gore. And that Richard Branson? He’s one of them there “global warming Nazis” too.
Dr Spencer is not a fringe figure in the politicization of the science of climate change.
He has been called at least four times by the Republican Party to give “evidence” to Congress. He is cited by prominent climate sceptic commentators around the world, including Australia’s Maurice Newman, the current Government’s top business advisor.
Dr Spencer was also incandescent in his post at the “pseudo-scientific ramblings” of the leaders of the “global warming Nazis”.
Step forward, every major national scientific academy on the planet, all those “global warming Nazis” at the World Bank, and the “global warming Nazis” in various defence forces around the world who increasingly see climate change as a major security issue.
While we’re talking about “pseudo scientific ramblings”, would this be a good time to point out that Dr Spencer believes that a Christian “god” is responsible for everything on the planet and says there’s more evidence for creationism than there is for evolution?
When Dr Spencer is not touting the merits of creationism, he has written how “my job is to minimise the role of government”.
Oddly, while Dr Spencer is convinced that all “deniers” should rally around his call for a rebranding of the likes of Barack Obama and Prince Charles, there are even deniers who prefer the term that he personally finds so offensive.
Take, for example, denier Dr Richard Lindzen, who when asked by a BBC journalist about which descriptive term he preferred, said: “I actually like ‘denier.’ That’s closer than skeptic”. (Six months before this interview, Lindzen had claimed the opposite, saying he was offended by the term.) It seems important in this context to point out that Dr Lindzen is Jewish.
Or there’s also denier Steve Milloy, who told Popular Science that: “I’m happy to be a denier.”
Lawrence Solomon, a prominent Canadian columnist, has written a climate book with the title “The Deniers” based on a series of columns he wrote, also called “The Deniers”.
Tom Harris, the head of climate science misinformation PR outfit the International Climate Science Coalition, agreed with Spencer’s Nazi reference, commenting: “Yes, they certainly do behave like Nazis.”
Harris’ organisation claims to seek “a more rational, open discussion” on climate science, which is somehow achieved by calling people “global warming Nazis”.
Another prominent climate science denier to have used Nazi analogies is Lord Christopher Monckton.
In 2011, shortly before flying to Australia for a speaking tour, Monckton used a large image of a Nazi swastika in a conference presentation next to a quote by an Australian government climate policy advisor, Professor Ross Garnaut.
As a result, speaking venues in Australia cancelled their Monckton appearances. Prime Minister at the time Julia Gillard described the remarks as “grossly inappropriate” and the Opposition leader Tony Abbott, who is now Prime Minister, said it was “offensive and over the top”.
Monckton issued a guarded apology, but then later claimed his remarks had been “very mild”.
Spencer also used swastika imagery in his post with a picture of a group of larch trees planted in the shape of a swastika in an east German forest. The trees went undiscovered for many years because the effect was only visible for a short time during autumn when the larch leaves changed their colour but the surrounding pines didn’t.
Once discovered, the trees were cut down. According to Spiegel Online, this was done over fears the site “could become some kind of pilgrimage location for neo-Nazis”.
Dr Spencer’s offensive comparison with Nazis risks turning his own views, and his own website, into a shrine for the most extremist of climate change deniers.
No offense.
