Challenge to Name Warming Alarmist Not Paid by the State - Scotsman letter

 

This letter is in the Scotsman today. This is only the 2nd time a newspaper has been willing to publish a letter aski8ng this question - perhaps a sign of change. It deliberately challenges Ballantine, Harvie or indeed anybody else to name a single scientist who is not paid by government but still supports CAGW and it will be interesting to see if they, or anybody else in the movement, do. Online comments are strongly supportive and even opponents give no names.. Editing in bold

Tom Ballantine expresses his outage that anybody might think he financially benefits from denouncing catastrophic global warming aka global warming aka climate change aka climate chaos on the grounds that "I receive no remuneration from Stop Climate Chaos Scotland" (letter 6th Sept).

I would have been much more impressed if Mr Ballantine had been able to say who does pay him and is his position as head of SCCS career enhancing or not. I have looked for but not found any senior member of the "environmental" community who is not ultimately paid out of our taxes.
He gives, as his sole reason for supporting the claim that we are experiencing catastrophic warming (or whatever) the assertion that "97% of climate scientists" accept it. 100% of "astrology scientists" making their living from it say that astrology works but we will have to disagree on whether this is sufficient to prove it.
I challenge him to name a single one of those "scientists" or indeed a single scientist, anywhere in the world who supports catastrophe claims and is not paid by the state.

I have asked 10s of thousands of alarmists, worldwide (including Patrick Harvie on air), not one of whom has been able to present a single name, who did not turn out either not actually to be a supporter of alarmism or to actually be paid from taxes.
HL Mencken once said "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary".

The fact that nobody has been able to cite a single independent scientist who supports warming alarmism strongly suggests it is such a hobgoblin.
But perhaps Mr Ballantine will be able to provide a name.

I regret the left out the reference to 100% of "astrology scientists" making a living from it saying it isn't a scam.
The removal of "not actually" reverses the literal meaning of my point but I think it is made clear in the bulk of the letter. This is clearly simply an editing error and I am in no position to complain because they edited in "to cite" which was what I meant but had carelessly left out.
Otherwise editing tightens it up.
PS I got an email from Patrick Harvie MSP yesterday in reply to a bulk mailing of all MSPs about the Tunnel Project. He was opposed, as I expected, but only on ideological grounds. I will write of this later, when I am sure all the others have had the time to reply.

http://a-place-to-stand.blogspot.com/2011/09/challenge-to-name-warming-alarmist-not.html