The right-wing Heartland Institute has been making a big fuss about "500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares."
Five hundred skeptical scientists? Sounds bad!
Kevin Grandia at DeSmogBlog had the radical idea of actually contacting the scientists, to see if they are being accurately characterized by Heartland.
You see where this is going, right?
In less than 24 hours, Grandia received three dozen outraged replies from scientists who didn’t know they were on the list and wanted to be removed. At this point the number is up to 45. Here’s a representative quote, from Dr. David Sugden, Professor of Geography, University of Edinburgh:
I am horrified to find my name on such a list. I have spent the last 20 years arguing the opposite.
Says University of Maryland’s Distinguished Professor Eugenia Kalnay:
This is just another example of lack of scruples that climate skeptics have shown in pursuing short-term financial advantages, and basically condemning the next generations to suffer the consequences of climate change due to our lack of prudent and responsible planning.
If Heartland really believes what it claims, why does it have to lie and slander scientists to make the point?
I assume the mainstream media will follow up on this, Heartland will lose its credibility, and their inevitable next BS press release won’t be gullibly quoted by journalists across the country. Ha ha.
