Denying Climategate

Ellen Goodman’s main contribution to the global warming debate was her statement in a 2007 column that “global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers.” Unfortunately this defamatory word “denier” has become the accepted term for skeptic. Consider how nasty this accusation is. Climate scientists who question the political arguments of the IPCC, and ordinary people who are skeptical of the accuracy of 100-year weather forecasts are on a par with Nazi sympathizers and deniers of 6 million murders? The comparison is nonsensical as well. Denying a projected future event is not comparable to denying history.

The damaging Climategate emails have not settled the debate, but it is now impossible to claim, as Goodman did in 2007, that the science is “unequivocal.” One might hope for an apology from Goodman. Rather, in today’s “Facts, and Figures, Myths and Mantras,” she offers up a self-righteous defense of her journalistic integrity which continues the Globe’s news black-out of any mention of the Hadley scandal. Although Goodman touts her diligent fact-checking career, she admits, “I hold the lack of these truths to be self-evident.” Precisely. A journalist concerned with facts doesn’t make a lazy assumption like this.