Germany's Greens get ugly with climate skeptics

A group of politicians grandstanding and acting like jackasses is no reason to denounce Germany. There is plenty of that in America. Remember Boxer wanting to throw people in jail over Climategate?
If they act, that is different. For now paying attention is enough. The German people are not the problem. It was not the German Army that comitted the great atrocities. It is always the small group that tries to control the people that is the problem.

netdr2
Thanks for that apology. Really appreciated. I now take back what I said too. So unlike what one ever gets from the Team.

FWIW, I got my own doctoral degree in Germany, and I worked with a guy with a PhD (Dr.rer.nat) in physics from Leipzig who had been a close colleague of Angela Merkel’s before she got into politics. Her specialization is quantum chemistry and, according to him, she is very good – and having been raised in East Germany, one might expect that – like Vaclav Klaus – she would know to be wary of this kind of official thinking and suppression of dissent. However, she is also a cunning politician who, from being Helmut Kohl’s token Eastern Germany female cabinet member, managed to succeeed him as party leader. She did go along with the nonsense about “not allowing the temperature in 100 years to get more than 2 degrees higher” statement. It’s impossible to know what her private views may be. Some time ago, many German skeptics sent her a letter – Marc Morano published a translation here:
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/2282/Consensus-Takes-Another-Hit-More-than-60-German-Scientists-Dissent-Over-Global-Warming-Claims-Call-Climate-Fears-Pseudo-Religion-Urge-Chancellor-to-reconsider-views
Whatever her personal views are, her problem is political. She managed – barely – to defeat Gerhard Schroeder’s SPD/Green coalition in 2005, so she probably can’t afford to be “out-greened” too much. That coalition had been elected with a promise to phase out nuclar power – something that Merkel has quietly slowed down.
Having said that – the main reason for the popularity of the Green Party, at the time, was the personal charisma (as some people would call it) of its then leader, Joschka Fischer. Renate Kuenast, who signed the letter posted here, was broadly seen as a loon. Without Fischer, who was a much wilier politician, hopefully they will shoot themselves in the foot.

Soooooo the zealous German Parliamentarians have issued a fatwa against anyone questioning the absolute truth of Man Made Global Warming, eh? Can Jihad be far behind? If I used the UN-IPCC report to clean my toilet, will they send out their jihadi assassins to murder me?
Sir Isaac Newton, we grasp your travails with historical clarity now….

The seeds of tyranny appear to be taking hold again in the German government at least when it comes to climate change issues
Shouldn’t that be parliament, not government?

I wonder what they would call Martin Luther had he been nailing his thoughts on the Church door in the 21st century.

Let’s not be so hasty in our condemnation of the Germans as a group. Take a look around here in the good old US of A (and other countries) at how “deniers” are treated. We are just more sneaky about how we go about it. See any grants ($$) out there to disprove AGW? “Settled science”? EPA going after carbon? “An Inconvenient Truth” wins awards? Algore wins awards? Many scientists fear being called a “denier”. ETC.
In typical German style, they take the ball and run with it, straight ahead, three yards and a cloud of dust. At least you know where they stand. A little R&R might be at work here, maybe, ie Rigidity and Rules. A German stereotype. I have, however, found that stereotypes are generally true of large groups of the same types (cultures, races) of people; of individuals, not so much. But then I have also noticed that it seems to be OK to be racist when it comes to picking on the Germans. Movies, recently, seem to like to depict the bad guys as as being right wing, facists or Germans (Die Hard 1,2,3…). And, no, I am not German.
All of those invested heavily in AGW, be it money or reputation, seem to be willing to throw others under the bus, not just the Germans.

..according to my calendar, it’s about time for Germany to invade France again.
Happy Veteran’s Day, thanks for keeping up the fight for truth, Anthony!!

Nudge, shove, shoot. The ways of past tyranny die hard, don’t they.

D. King says:
November 11, 2010 at 12:21 pm

I wonder if it would trouble them to know
that Fred Singer has surpassed the Corona
guy as: “The most interesting man alive?”

Partial credit for naming another Mexican beer but it’s Dos Equis not Corona.

Gagging free speech and people’s right to opine will only result in a revolt that grows larger than it was originally.
When “the few” get stopped in their tracks and made to “shut up”, the masses gather and grow to fight back… whether they agree with “the few” or not.
These futile attempts to end the debate will only feed the fire.
/psychology 101

It is not (very) unfair, just … it’s like explaining a pocket calculator as a “very fast abacus”.
The political coordinate systems are pretty much different.
For instance, all parties, except maybe the lunatic F.D.P. fringe, are in favor of socialized health care, and other things. There are minor quarrels about how much more taxes should be raised for this, and how far the benefits should be reduced.
You can certainly read up on that on your own.
I am not overly concerned with what the fringe is babbling (BTW, the “Nazis” are basically secret service honeypots), I am concerned about how it goes without saying that the government will push through what the fringe only talks about. For instance, gender mainstreaming is official CDU policy, as is climate change, and consider how a member of the ruling coalition was treated when she listened to some “deniers”.