United Liberty

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s comments regarding skeptics of man-made climate change are very inflammatory:

There is an anti-science group, there is a flat Earth group, if I may say so, over the scientific evidence for climate change.

I was forwarded that story by a reader and found myself really getting riled up by it, bringing to fruition this post. Gordon Brown’s comments are totally ridiculous. Most climate change skeptics have very nuanced views that basically argue that climate change is occurring, but that the Al Gore style zealotry is totally inappropriate because 1) CO2 is totally natural even in massive quantities, (in Washington state, it was a common statistic that volcanoes such as Mt. St. Helens emitted more CO2 in one eruption than Washington state’s car drivers did in one year) and 2) the world is in a constant state of climate flux, evidenced by the fact that ancient history describes the Middle East as green and abundant when it’s barren and sandy now. None of these points refute climate change, but instead refute the arguments that man’s activity on earth is the cause for it.

The view of skeptics is much more complex and nuanced than that of Prime Minister Brown, Al Gore or the like. By referring to skeptics as “a flat Earth group,” Brown seems to be comparing us to the Church as it persecuted Galileo Galilei. Brown has the comparison reversed. It’s really him, the United Nations, Al Gore and all those who are trying to silence and deligitimate criticism and dissent that are acting in an authoritarian and regressive manner.