Australian Climate Scientists Get Death Threats.

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Wednesday June 08, 2011 21:21

by Speranza

Climate scientists lives are at risk. Why? Because they have produced evidence which shows the erxtent of Global Warming and the damage done to the environment. The deniers don't like this and neither do the big mining and oil companies. They go crazy at the idea of paying a carbon tax. These companies have deep pockets and it wouldn't be surprising if they slipped a few dollars to the nuttier deniers to threaten scientists and perhaps go further.

Most deniers are harmless folk, they rarely leave their computers and wouldn't have the nerve to counter protest at an environmental demo. But there is always the mad few, looks as if they may be at work in Autralia.

A number of Australia's leading climate scientists have been moved into safer accommodation after receiving death threats, in a further escalation of the country's increasingly febrile carbon price debate. The revelation of the death threats follows a week of bitter exchanges between the government and the opposition in the wake of a pro-carbon price TV advert featuring actor Cate Blanchet. Being a denier of GLOBAL warming and supporting the destruction of the Environment is easy.

The Australia National University (ANU) in Canberra said that it has moved a number of its climate scientists to a secure facility after they received a large number of threatening emails and phone calls. Ian Young, ANU's vice-chancellor, told ABC national radio that the threats had worsened in recent weeks.

"Obviously climate research is an emotive issue at the present time," he said. "These are issues where we should have a logical public debate and it's completely intolerable that people be subjected to this sort of abuse and to threats like this. I think it is totally outrageous and the vast majority of Australians would think it is totally unacceptable for anybody in society to be subjected to this sort of behaviour.

Among those targeted is Prof Will Steffen, ANU's climate institute director. Steffen is the co-author of a high-profile Climate Commission report that was published two weeks ago. The report calls for urgent action to avoid sea level rises of a metre or more over the course of the next century.

Prof David Koroly, of the University of Melbourne's school of Earth science, told the ABC that he receives threats whenever he is interviewed by the media."It is clear that there is a campaign in terms of either organised or disorganised threats to discourage scientists from presenting the best available climate science on television or radio," he said.