Remember the good ol’ days when climate scientists were encouraged to spread the word about global warming?
You know, back before ClimateGate and news about the glaciers not melting and the coral not bleaching and the sea levels not rising and the rain forests not disappearing. Ahhh, those were the days.
But times have changed and now the IPCC wants scientists to avoid the press as if they have some horrible global warming-caused disease.
The New York Times has the story:
The 831 researchers who will contribute to the next round of assessments of climate science and policy options by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been sent a letter admonishing them to “keep a distance from the media” and send any press inquiries about the work of their author groups to supervisors.
On Friday, one recipient of the letter, Edward R. Carr, an associate professor of geography at the University of South Carolina who will work on the assessment of climate impacts and adaptation options, complained about the letter in a post on his blog under the heading “ Apparently we have learned nothing….”
He warned that the panel appears stuck in a “bunker mentality” that will do little to build its credibility after a trying year of attacks by foes of restrictions on greenhouse gases and skeptics of climate science. In an e-mail message alerting me to Carr’s post, Mickey Glantz, a University of Colorado specialist in climate impacts in poor regions who has been an author on previous panel reports, said he agreed with Carr, adding: “I think the I.P.C.C. is on the wrong path.”
Polar bears are also being encouraged to avoid the media, lest children find out they really aren’t dying out.
Source: New York Times
