Stanford Protects Stephen Schneider from Public Embarrassment
Stanford recently moved to protect one of its own from embarrassment. The University prohibited filmmakers of the upcoming documentary “Not Evil Just Wrong” from using the audio and video from an interview they conducted with Stanford Professor Stephen Schneider.
Climatedepot.com reported today that it has obtained the letter sent by the University to the film’s director Phelim McAleer. Skeptical of global warming crusaders’ tactics and their impact on humans, McAleer’s documentary was to feature the interview with Schneider.
Currently, Schneider very publicly champions the fight against potential “climate change that’s catastrophic in the next century.” But Stanford’s actions against the filmmakers on Schneider’s behalf also stem from the filmmakers’ questioning of Schneider regarding his publicly-stated assertions during the 70s that man was contributing to global cooling. During the interview, Schneider responds with
I was initially in 1970 and ‘71 more worried about cooling.
In the film, this quote about his previous views on global cooling is particularly embarrassing because it is book-ended by his current, strong assertions that global warming will be devastating. First, he warns,
Don’t be poor in a hot country, don’t live in a hurricane alley, watch out about being on a cost or in the arctic, it’s bad idea to be up in high mountains with your glaciers melting and losing your water supply and if you are in Mediterranean climate you’re gonna have a fire season in the summer and it’s really gonna be a problem.
Later, he states confidently,
The scientific community is very, very confident that it is warming.
In the eyes of the media, Schneider is a climate change rock star frequently sought out for comment by the New York Times, PBS, and the like. And we all know that when a Stanford professor is a media rock star, Stanford is a media rock star. However, we see now that when a Stanford professor is embarrassed in the media, Stanford is embarrassed in the media, and that just can’t happen. Stanford will strong-arm and intimidate and ultimately silence those who seek to embarrass the University.
Then again, maybe that’s only true if you’re a liberal professor.
Then there’s this quote from Dr. Schneider:
“On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but – which means that we must include all doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people we’d like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climate change. To do that we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, means getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This “double ethical bind” we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both.”
Well we’re getting plenty of scary stories, that’s for sure!
You could also make the case that banning a film where a Stanford professor says he was against global warming before he was for it is another example of the university infringing on free speech…
If the film makers actually have a release from this guy, which they should have gotten from him when he was interviewed, then Stanford has not a lawyer to stand on. If they *didn’t* get a release, then they have no one to blame but themselves for gross stupidity.
Fusion of madness in the brains of physicists and it is “wonderful” to manipulate with politicians,
that they can physicists live cheaply in mechanical way.
Looks like Mr. Schneider still has his minions squelching any dissenting views or questions about his inconsistencies. (hmmm…very much like those involved in Climategate.) When questioned at a PRESS Conference about Climategate his little assistant had armed UN security officers remove Mr. McAleer from the Press conference! If you can’t take the heat… (the REAL heat, not the “global warming” mantra that is repeated like umpa lumpas).
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/science_policy_general/000318chris_landsea_leaves.html the apocalyptics were disgusting people for a long time over at IPCC. note Pielke in the old posts, too.
“I was initially in 1970 and ‘71 more worried about cooling.”
And here he is in 1979
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB2ugPM0cRM&playnext_from=TL&videos=Nhsu_Cf9KOo&feature=sub
So what is your point again? Fucking liar!