A group of British climate scientists is demanding changes to a skeptical documentary about global warming, saying there are grave errors in the program billed as a response to Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth.""The Great Global Warming Swindle" aired on British television in March and is coming out soon on DVD. It argues that man-made emissions have a marginal impact on the world's climate and warming can better be explained by changing patterns of solar activity.
An open letter sent Tuesday by 38 scientists, including the former heads of Britain's academy of sciences and Britain's weather office, called on producer Wag TV to remove what it called "major misrepresentations" from the film before the DVD release -- a demand its director said was tantamount to censorship.
Bob Ward, the former spokesman for the Royal Society, Britain's academy of science, and one of the letter's signatories, said director Mark Durkin made a "long catalog of fundamental and profound mistakes" -- including the claim that volcanoes produce more carbon dioxide than humans, and that the Earth's atmosphere was warmer during the Middle Ages than it is today.
"Free speech does not extend to misleading the public by making factually inaccurate statements," he said. "Somebody has to stand up for the public interest here."
Durkin called the letter "loathsome."
"This is a contemptible, weasel-worded attempt to gag scientific criticism, and it won't work," he said. "I don't believe they're interested in quality control when it comes to the reporting of science -- so long as it's on their side..."
Note the sentences I've printed in bold above. They underscore how liberals are becoming increasingly contemptuous of the freedoms of speech, religion and association because the bankruptcy of their ideas cannot stand the scrutiny of open debate. Therefore, the alarming demand for greater and greater control to silence their opposition.
Whether it involves "hate crimes" legislation, the obscurantist refusal to allow Intelligent Design to compete against Darwinism, the banishment of historic Christianity from government education and the public square, the insistence that Fox News and conservative talk radio be somehow proscribed, and so on, there is a growing desire of liberals to disallow, by force, any ideas except their own.
Here's the rest of the article.
