To: Brumar89 who wrote (847913 ) 4/6/2015 1:36:13 AM From: Wharf Rat Read Replies (1) | Respond to Here's a twofer you'll like... crimes against humanity, plus death threats by friends of the criminals.In researching my previous debate blogpost I came onto the story of Professor Lawrence Torcello in an article at the Union of Concerned Scientist blog (Yeah, they are on the Republican enemies list too, it's tough not to be) . Torcello finally enunciated something I've been struggling with and that's at the heart of all these posts I keep putting up. How should society contend with those who knowingly disseminate misinformation about climate science. It started with an article he wrote for 'The Conversation' where he discussed the Italian trial of geologists in the wake of the 2009 earthquake. There's no point in retelling it since his Conversation article does a better job and thanks to their Creative Commons License I have permission to reprint all of it. Following that I've included the full text of the Union of Concerned Scientists article. I've added some highlights. Food for thought. ____________________________________________________________________ The Conversation https://theconversation.com/is-misinformation-about-the-climate-criminally-negligent-23111 Lawrence Torcello | March 13, 2014 Is misinformation about the climate criminally negligent? The importance of clearly communicating science to the public should not be underestimated. Accurately understanding our natural environment and sharing that information can be a matter of life or death. When it comes to global warming, much of the public remains in denial about a set of facts that the majority of scientists clearly agree on ucsusa.org Got Science? | April 2014 | Union of Concerned Scientists Publications Lawrence Torcello, a philosophy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, never imagined he would become the focus of a vicious barrage of hate mail when, last month, he published an article in a British online journal about the ethics of climate change misinformation. But, sure enough, in recent weeks, Torcello has been subjected to death threats, racial slurs, anti-gay and anti-Semitic epithets. He’s been called a fascist, a Stalinist, a Nazi and a communist. One of the many contemptible emails he received, for example, reads simply: “DIE you maggot.” An anonymous phone message ominously threatens that he’ll “be paid a visit.” In all, Torcello estimates that he has been subjected to more than 700 harassing calls, emails and tweets.... whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com
