> Would the AAPG rewarding to M. Crichton have raised so much
> criticism
> if he had fictionally supported the human induced global warming
> (HIGW) instead of the opposite ?.
I think it certainly would attract opposition in such a circumstance, for the reasons given already, that tendentious fiction is not journalism.
But in such a circumstance it would be relatively harmless. We are in a dangerous situation at present in that we live under a great economic and social threat, but in a case such that there are powerful vested interests seeking to prevent any defensive measures being undertaken, by denying the threat exists in the first place. Anyone who allows himself to be made a tool of such interests is a danger to the world at large.
It's always weird to see assertions that climate change deniers are poor persecuted people who are starved of funding that is reserved for the members of the club promoting received wisdom. I don't think any evidence has ever been shown for this, whereas there certainly is evidence of c-c deniers receiving funding from lobbying groups. If there are cases of c-c deniers being turned down for funding, it might simply be because the science was poor, rather than that it was "heretical".
The fact is, that no-one WANTS climate change to be true. It hurts all of us. It's not palatable news to anyone. Those who might possibly have a vested interested in climate change being true are few and of no economic account. Those who have a vested interest in it not being true, or even just not being accepted as true, are obvious and powerful. It doesn't take much nous to work out how the politics are going to fall out.
Roger Musson
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