Climate skeptics love citing MIT prof Richard Lindzen, probably because, well, there aren’t many other semi-legitimate skeptics left to cite. (And how many of the dead enders can bamboozle their way into Newsweek?)
But lately, it seems like Lindzen is more and more openly losing his cool. A quick survey of today’s news, for instance, unearths two deeply wackadoo quotes.
First, Lindzen tells the BBC that Exxon-Mobil is "the only principled oil and gas company I know in the US."
OK, put aside for a moment the question of what “principle” mandates the rejection of mainstream science. Put aside the question of what it would even mean to be a “principled oil and gas company.” Put aside the fact that the company now claims to accept that anthropogenic global warming is a danger that needs to be addressed, and thus has abandoned whatever "principle" was standing in its way.
Wait, no, I can’t put all that aside. WTF?
Second, there’s this gem from a Lindzen interview in the rightwing rag National Post:
Q … On a recent Grade 7 test my daughter was asked something to the effect of, “How are you going to educate your parents about global warming?”
A I know. It’s straight out of Hitlerjugend.
Yes, asking middle schoolers about global warming is exactly like training a nation’s youth to exterminate Jews! Why, the parallel couldn’t be more clear! If you’re around the fracking bend, anyway.
Lindzen is ubiquitous in the media, so I’m sure a scan of any given day’s news will turn up fruitloopitude of the same caliber. Something to keep in mind the next time your neighborhood flat earther cites Lindzen as an authority.
