![ADL[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/adl1.gif)
I’ve waited several days for a response since I sent a letter last Thursday, I’ve checked the ADL website, my Inbox, fax machine, and asked in the climate skeptic community if anyone has seen any response of any kind from ADL. None has been received. It seems that ADL chooses silence after making a hypocritical error that puts their organization in a very bad light.
Readers will most certainly recall the ugly situation that ADL put themselves in when a climate activist at the Atlanta ADL office (Shelley Rose) issued a statement condemning Dr. Roy Spencer, who after years of suffering abuse, decided to fight back with a label of his own.
Apparently acting on her own, Shelley Rose moved quickly to denounce Dr. Spencer, yet the ADL main organization appears unwilling to defend him and other climate skeptics from reprehensible analogies to “Holocaust deniers”.
Since then, I and many other have sent letters, made phone calls, and some even made visits to ADL offices trying to right this hypocritical wrong. So far, ADL’s public reaction has been indifference and silence, and they’ve even gone as far as shutting off comments on their original press release, but have remained silent on the criticism of an issue they themselves created. Yet, their own director says this:
“Inappropriate Comparisons Trivialize the Holocaust” – Abraham Foxman, ADL Director
Where was ADL through the years of abuse climate skeptics have dealt with? Why does ADL condemn Dr. Spencer for labeling attackers as “climate Nazis” while turning a blind eye to the much larger and longstanding pattern of abuse that trivializes the Holocaust? Below, over 40 examples of such abuse from prominent people in the climate debate follow. Following that, two letters that have been sent to ADL on this issue that have been ignored as of this writing.
Examples of “Inappropriate Comparisons Trivialize the Holocaust”
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| Ellen Goodman |
“Let’s just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers.”
– Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe (2007)
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| Al Gore |
“Clouds of a different sort signal an environmental holocaust without precedent. Once again, world leaders waffle, hoping the danger will dissipate. Yet today the evidence is as clear as the sounds of glass shattering in Berlin.”
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| Andrew Glikson |
“I wonder whether such a show, if concerned with denial of the holocaust of world war II, would have been conceived?”
– Andrew Glikson, Australian National University (2012)
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| Bernie Sanders |
“It reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s – there were people – who said ‘don’t worry! Hitler’s not real! It’ll disappear!”
– Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont (2010)
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| Bill McGuire |
“We have Holocaust deniers; we have climate change deniers. And to be honest, I don’t think there’s a great deal of difference.”
– Bill McGuire, University College London (2006)
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| Caroline Lucas |
“Would the media insist on having a Holocaust-denier to balance any report about the Second Word War?”
– Caroline Lucas, U.K. Green Party MP (2007)
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| Chad Kister |
“…the others working to derail this critical piece of legislation will be seen as the Adolph Hitlers of our day, contributing to a holocaust vastly eclipsing the horrors of World War II.”
– Chad Kister, Environmental Activist (2008)
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| Charles Larson |
“The deniers of climate change are cut from the same cloth as Holocaust deniers. They’ve never been to the death camps, Auschwitz and Birkenau, so what they haven’t seen does not exist.”
– Charles Larson, American University (2013)
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| Chris Mooney |
“The obvious reductio ad absurdum is Holocaust deniers: Should their perspective be provided, for “balance,” any time someone writes about the Holocaust?”
– Chris Mooney, The Intersection (2006)
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| Clive Hamilton |
“Climate deniers are less immoral than Holocaust deniers, although they are undoubtedly more dangerous.”
– Clive Hamilton, Charles Sturt University (2009)
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| Craig Rosebraugh |
“Fox [News] is far and away the extreme example. They’ll have a known holocaust denier debating a holocaust survivor.”
– Craig Rosebraugh, Environmental Activist (2013)
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| Chris Huhne |
“Giving in to the forces of low ambition would be an act of climate appeasement. This is our Munich moment.”
– Chris Huhne, U.K. Energy and Climate Change Minister (2011)
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| David Fiderer |
“At its core, global warming denial is like Holocaust denial, an assault on common decency.”
– David Fiderer, The Huffington Post (2009)
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| David Roberts |
“It’s about the climate-change “denial industry”, …we should have war crimes trials for these bastards – some sort of climate Nuremberg.”
– David Roberts, Grist Magazine (2006)
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| Donald Prothero |
“There are many more traits that the climate deniers share with the creationists and Holocaust deniers and others who distort the truth.”
– Donald Prothero, Occidental College (2012)
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| George Monbiot |
“Almost everywhere, climate change denial now looks as stupid and as unacceptable as Holocaust denial.”
– George Monbiot, The Guardian (2006)
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| Greg Craven |
“When the press does a story on the Holocaust, do they give equal time to the revisionists?”
– Greg Craven, Central High School, Independence, Oregon (2010)
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| Guy Keleny |
“I think these people are anti-science flat-earthers. …They are every bit as dangerous as Holocaust deniers.”
– Guy Keleny, The Independent (2013)
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| James Hrynyshyn |
“I asked Lucht if he would give similar treatment to anti-vaccine activists or Holocaust deniers.”
– James Hrynyshyn, The Island of Doubt (2009)
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| James Powell |
“Those who abjure global warming are not skeptics; they are deniers. To call them skeptics is to debase language as much as to call the Ku Klux Klan “prejudiced,” Holocaust deniers “biased,” or Flat-Earthers “mistaken.”
– James Powell, National Physical Science Consortium (2012)
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| Jim Hoggan |
“These are not debunkers, testing outrageous claims with scientific rigor. They are deniers – like Holocaust deniers.”
– Jim Hoggan, DeSmogBlog (2005)
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| Joe Romm |
“Would PBS go so far as to give air time to an even more extreme kind of disinformer, a Holocaust denier?”
– Joe Romm, Climate Progress (2012)
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| Joel Connelly |
“Bluntly put, climate change deniers pose a greater danger than the lingering industry that denies the Holocaust.”
– Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (2007)
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| Johann Hari |
“The climate-change deniers are rapidly ending up with as much intellectual credibility as creationists and Flat Earthers. …they are nudging close to having the moral credibility of Holocaust deniers.”
– Johann Hari, The Independent (2005)
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| Jon Niccum |
“An Inconvenient Truth is so convincing that it makes opposers of the argument as credible as Holocaust deniers.”
– Jon Niccum, Lawrence Journal-World (2006)
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| Margo Kingston |
“David Irving is under arrest in Austria for Holocaust denial. Perhaps there is a case for making climate change denial an offence – it is a crime against humanity after all.”
– Margo Kingston, Webdiary (2006)
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| Mark Lynas |
“I wonder what sentences judges might hand down at future international criminal tribunals on those who will be partially but directly responsible for millions of deaths from starvation, famine and disease in decades ahead. I put this in a similar moral category to Holocaust denial.”
– Mark Lynas, Environmental Activist (2006)
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| Nathan Rees |
“The threat of climate change is catastrophic. In fact, the current wave of climate change scepticism smacks of 1930s-style appeasement.”
– Nathan Rees, Australian Politician (2009)
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| Paul McCartney |
“Some people don’t believe in climate warning – like those who don’t believe there was a Holocaust.”
– Paul McCartney, Musician (2010)
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| Pete Postlethwaite |
“There are bound to be deniers. Whenever you set up a thesis there’s bound to be somebody who comes the opposite way …like Holocaust deniers.”
– Pete Postlethwaite, Actor (2009)
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| Peter Christoff |
“Even so – and because of its resonance with Holocaust denial – the term “denier” can be used to describe those who trivially reject the existence and threat of global warming.”
– Peter Christoff, The Age (2007)
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| Peter Jacques |
“This article begins by first naming this counter-movement “climate denial” and working through the various apparent options by specifically looking at the scholarship on Holocaust denial for insight.”
– Peter Jacques, University of Central Florida (2012)
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| Rajendra Pachauri |
“What is the difference between Lomborg’s view of humanity and Hitler’s? …If you were to accept Lomborg’s way of thinking, then maybe what Hitler did was the right thing.”
– Rajendra Pachauri, U.N. IPCC (2004)
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| Richard Glover |
“Surely it’s time for climate-change deniers to have their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies.”
– Richard Glover, The Sydney Morning Herald (2011)
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| Richard Kyte |
“Does the Media Research Center think equal air time should be given to Holocaust deniers and flat-earthers as well?”
– Richard Kyte, Viterbo University (2013)
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| Richard Schiffman |
“We don’t give Holocaust deniers equal time to vent their noxious views, so why offer it to the climate change deniers?”
– Richard Schiffman, The Huffington Post (2012)
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| Robert Manne |
“Denialism, a concept that was first widely used, as far as I know, for those who claimed that the Holocaust was a fraud, is the concept I believe we should use.”
– Robert Manne, La Trobe University (2009)
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| Scott Pelley |
“If I do an interview with Elie Wiesel, am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?”
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| Stephen Buckley |
“I now have a new level of disdain for global warming deniers. I just lump them in with Holocaust deniers and act accordingly.”
– Stephen Elliott-Buckley, Politics, Re-Spun (2007)
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| Stuart Pimm |
“The text [The Skeptical Environmentalist] employs the strategy of those who, for example, argue …that Jews weren’t singled out by the Nazis for extermination.”
– Stuart Pimm, Columbia University (2001)
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| Thomas Schelling |
“I do think it’s often a mistake to call them climate skeptics. I think they’re deniers, just as I think president Ahmadinejad of iran who claims not to believe that the Holocaust occurred.”
– Thomas Schelling, University of Maryland (2013) 
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PDF Posted by Andrew Labels: Global Warming
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Thanks to Andrew at PopularTechnology.net for compiling that list.
Below is a letter that I sent to ADL National Director Abraham Foxman last week via email and by fax. I have received no response.
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ABRAHAM H. FOXMAN
National Director
Anti-Defamation league
New York, NY 10012
2/27/14
Dear Mr. Foxman,
I hope you are aware of the recent events surrounding a press release issued by Ms. Shelly Rose, if not, this letter may be helpful to you.
Since it appears the press release issued by Shelley Rose out of the Atlanta office condemning Dr. Roy Spencer has not been posted on the main ADL website yet, does your organization have any comment on whether they endorse it or not?
That press release is here: http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/
It appears Ms. Rose used her connections and knowledge as a climate activist to form an opinion on the issue, yet it seems antithetical to the mission of the ADL.
Since Dr. Spencer and many others have been the victims of Holocaust related hate speech for years, including calls for Nuremberg style trials, propaganda style videos of exploding children who might be skeptical of climate change, and even calls for the death of climate skeptics (see references below) for at least seven years since the term “denier” was thrust into the American lexicon as a term used to describe climate by a widely syndicated column by Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe in 2007, my belief is that the main ADL organization has remain silent on this issue simply due to being uninformed on the issue.
I also believe that Ms. Rose may have acted without your knowledge and/or approval when she issued that press release, but given the history we have uncovered about her climate activism at an Atlanta synagogue, it seems she was well versed in the climate issue.
The mission of the ADL clearly is: Imagine a World Without Hate®
Yet, here we have the ADL silent on Holocaust related hate speech being used to label people who have a different viewpoint on the science surrounding climate. As Dr. Spencer notes in his rebuttal, “…we do not deny global warming. We do not deny climate change.” but many climate skeptics, including myself, question the intensity of the effect, especially since projections from computer climate models and measured temperature have not matched now for 15 years.
I see this as a golden opportunity to right a wrong, and to expand on what Ms. Rose said in her press release to include the use of “climate denier” as also being unacceptable.
It has become too common to use comparisons to the Holocaust and Nazi imagery to attack people with opposing views, whether the issue is global warming, immigration or stem-cell research. The six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims of Hitler deserve better. Their deaths should not be used for political points or sloganeering. This type of comparison diminishes and trivializes the Holocaust. There is no place for it in civil discussions.
I certainly agree with that, and I hope that ADL will solve the quandary Ms. Rose has created where it seems hypocritical to favor one usage and not another. I would hope that ADL amends their position to include the use of the term “climate denier” as equally wrong.
Thank you for your consideration, and hope you’ll make a statement that covers both sides of this ugly episode rather than just one. I look forward to your comments on the issue.
Anthony Watts
WUWT
Chico, CA
[business address and phone number redacted]
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REFERENCES:
(1.) I would like to say we’re at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let’s just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future. – Ellen Goodman, Boston Globe, February 9, 2007 “No change in political climate” on the Wayback Machine here
(2.) The1010Campaign | September 30, 2010
http://www.1010global.org/no-pressure
Whippersnapping climate campaign 10:10 teams up with legendary comic screenwriter Richard Curtis – you know, Blackadder, Four Weddings, Notting Hill, co-founded Comic Relief – and Age of Stupid director Franny Armstrong to proudly present their explosive new mini-movie “No Pressure”. The film stars X-Files’ Gillian Anderson, together with Spurs players past and present – including Peter Crouch, Ledley King and David Ginola – with music donated by Radiohead. Shot on 35mm by a 40-strong professional film crew led by director Dougal Wilson, “No Pressure” celebrates everybody who is actively tackling climate change… by blowing up those are aren’t.
Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjVW6roRs-w
(3.) Austrian Prof: global warming deniers should be sentenced to death
(4.) NUREMBERG-STYLE TRIALS PROPOSED FOR GLOBAL WARMING SKEPTICS
http://www.epw.senate.gov/fact.cfm?party=rep&id=264568
(5.) Editorial on the Press Release from Ms. Rose, including photos of her at an Atlanta Synagogue with a climate activist group.
sent via email, fax
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Now, here is a much more powerful letter, sent by one of our readers about the same time as my letter, who is far more prescient than I on the issue and who spoke with ADL Director Foxman
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Abe – Thank you for taking the time to speak with me this morning.
Let me preface what follows by stating up front that, as a Jew and a member of civil society, I greatly appreciate the work ADL has done over many years to fight anti-Semitism in the U.S. and across the globe, and I enthusiastically support your efforts in that pursuit.
As we discussed, I am writing you to highly recommend, in the strongest possible manner, that ADL retract the condemnation of Roy Spencer’s analogy issued by ADL SE Interim Regional Director Shelley Rose yesterday and apologize to Dr. Spencer. The only plausible alternative would be to retract the condemnation, issue an apology to Dr. Spencer, and condemn the use of Nazi/Holocaust imagery and rhetoric by either side in the debate about global warming/climate change.
During our conversation this morning, you said that ADL reacts to these types of situations as you become aware of them, and that had you become aware of similar offensive imagery/rhetoric being used against Dr. Spencer and others, you would have condemned it, too as you became aware of it. In the same way that there is no statute of limitations on hunting Nazi war criminals 3 generations after WWII, I believe it is only fair to expect that there is no statute of limitations on the ADL position of condemning this type of speech/imagery when you become aware of it, regardless of its date.
As such, as I promised during our call this morning, below you will find a few examples of Nazi/Holocaust rhetoric and imagery being used against those who hold the same beliefs as Dr. Spencer, about which ADL has remained silent for almost a decade. In fact, if you will read Dr. Spencer’s initial blog post that began this episode, and consider it in context with the below examples, I believe any objective assessment of his comments versus those in the links below would find Dr. Spencer’s analogy historically very relevant and the other speech/imagery something, quite frankly, rather reminiscent of the era before WWII. You will note that Dr. Spencer does not advocate for mistreatment, physical harm, imprisonment, or death of those who hold different view. You will also note that the rhetoric/imagery in the links below in some cases explicitly calls for mistreatment, imprisonment, and even suggests death for those who hold the same beliefs as Dr. Spencer.
This is intended to give you a broader view of the playing field. Dr. Spencer and many others have been the subject of vile personal and professional attacks simply because of their scientific beliefs. Environmental extremists, journalists, and others have even gone so far as to publish a list of “deniers” (one by a prominent writer for the UK Guardian here http://www.theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2009/mar/06/climate-change-deniers-top-10 and another here http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-denier-elite-20130912 and another here http://denierlist.wordpress.com/
While I could (and would be happy to) send you dozens of such examples by “journalists”, activists, professors, politicians, and other scientists in this field using Holocaust and Nazi rhetoric and imagery, I will give you a brief sampling below, again in an attempt to demonstrate the context that Ms. Rose seems to have completely missed and how ADL has not once condemned such speech.
Here, NASA scientist James Hansen says, “if we cannot stop building of more coal-fired power plants, those coal trains will be death trains – no less gruesome than if they were boxcars headed to crematoria, loaded with uncountable irreplaceable species”. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2007/11/26/202133/hansen-stands-by-coal-traindeath-train-analogy/#
Here, Professor Richard Parncutt uses the intentionally derogatory term “denier” over 20 times in an article where he states “in this article, I am going to suggest that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for influential GW deniers”. http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/prof-richard-parncutt-death-penalty-for-global-warming-deniers/.
Note that the “denier” label has been used hundreds of times by professors, journalists, activists, scientists, and many others supporting action on climate change/global warming for about a decade. In every situation, it is an oblique way of painting people who have different beliefs on this issue as “evil”; since rational, civil people all accept that those who deny the Holocaust are evil. Use of the term “denier” is – unequivocally – intended to portray those who disagree with extreme environmentalists as a mirror image of Holocaust deniers. In fact, in this same post, Professor Parncutt isn’t even oblique about it, quote: “What about holocaust deniers? The Nazi holocaust was the worst crime in human history, for two reasons: the enormous number of murdered people and the automation of the murder process. Those who deny the holocaust certainly belong behind bars. The death penalty would be too much for them, because holocaust deniers are not directly causing the deaths of other people”. So, according to Professor Parncutt, people like Dr. Spencer are obviously worse than Holocaust deniers, because those deniers “certainly belong behind bars”. But deniers like Dr. Spencer? They deserve the death penalty, according to Professor Parncutt.
In 2006, environmental journalist David Roberts wrote in an article on Grist, speaking of those he had repeatedly referred to as “deniers” in previous articles at Grist and other similarly-minded publications, “”When we’ve finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we’re in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards — some sort of climate Nuremberg.” Grist took down the article because it was so controversial, but reference to it even appears on the U.S. Senate Env. & Public Works website to this day here (and dozens of other places) http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=A4017645-DE27-43D7-8C37-8FF923FD73F8 and while the article Roberts penned has been removed from Grist’s website, Roberts mea culpa has not, see here http://grist.org/article/on-climate-denialists-and-nuremberg/
Should you need more evidence that the use of the oblique – and as you can see sometimes explicit – term “denier” to equate those who hold the same beliefs as Dr. Spencer with Holocaust deniers has become commonplace, look no further than “America’s Newspaper of Record”, the NY Times. See the upper right hand quadrant of this rather suggestive cartoon that publication ran earlier this month http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2014/02/09/opinion/sunday/see-something-say.html?_r=0#1 At least one other Judeo-Christian organization with a website was bothered enough to draw attention to this, see here http://blogs.christianpost.com/time-for-everything/new-york-times-humor-stab-climate-change-deniers-20224/
Below are a sampling of pictures that were taken down from the “Skepticalscience.com” website forum. The site is run by Australian climate scientist John Cook. In these pictures, climate scientists John Cook and Dana Nuccitelli appear photoshopped into Nazi uniforms, as some sort of “climate truth” Gestapo, implication being they will exterminate “deniers”. Once discovered, these were quickly taken down from that forum but not before certain screen shots were captured in the blogosphere.
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/1_herrcook.jpg
http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/1_herrcook.jpg
As a final point of reference and context into the depravity to which environmental extremists have taken this issue, one with shockingly graphic specific Holocaust undertones, I submit a video produced by climate activists “1010 Global”, from 2010, in which school children who do not agree to reduce their carbon footprint and others with similar beliefs are blown up, literally, see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnddMpzPsM
As you can see, this has been going on for over a decade. I can find not a single instance when ADL Southeast Interim Regional Director Shelley Rose or anyone at ADL National condemned this rhetoric or these images.
You should know that Dr. Spencer, who has suffered these vile attacks for years, is a distinguished scientist in his field. A PhD, he was a Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he and Dr. John Christy received NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for their global temperature monitoring work with satellites. Dr. Spencer’s work with NASA continues as the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA’s Aqua satellite. He has provided congressional testimony several times on the subject of global warming. He and Dr. Christy are currently responsible for the world’s oldest global temperature satellite data set (known as the “UAH” data set, used by all climate scientists worldwide).
Consider this: I think we can both agree that Hitler’s regime in Nazi Germany targeted a minority group (Jews), blamed them for terrible ills facing their society (Germany’s economic/social condition), used bad science to substantiate their policies (eugenics), used fear and intimidation to marginalize that group (Goebbels, SS, paramilitary groups, youth groups), and what evolved from there is the saddest chapter in modern human history. This is not to suggest that extremist environmental critics of Dr. Spencer are on the verge of rounding up “skeptics” and putting them in concentration camps. It is only to suggest a) that we have some historical context/precedent of behavior that is analogous in its earliest stages, and b) I do not believe that ADL’s SE Interim Regional Director had the perspectives of both sides in this debate when she issued that condemnation.
Regarding the latter, I started the day giving Ms. Rose the benefit of the doubt. However, I am troubled that her personal politics may have influenced the condemnation she issued. Ms. Rose is pictured here in 2007 with a group called “Congregations Caring for the Climate” http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/stepitup2007/464126698/ in conjunction with a non-profit called “StepItUp2007”. A visit to StepItUp2007’s website leaves no question that it is a climate activist organization http://stepitup2007.org/article.php?list=type&type=48 and their list of “Friends and Allies” includes numerous well known climate activist organizations who themselves have engaged in or enabled “denier” speech like the examples shown above for the better part of the last decade http://stepitup2007.org/links To many, this might bring into question whether Shelley Rose is speaking for the ADL, or using her platform as SE Interim Regional Director for ADL to advance her own agenda.
Frankly, I will agree with Ms. Rose that the use of this sort of rhetoric and imagery is inflammatory and disrespectful to the 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust. Dr. Spencer, who has always behaved, and responded to these vile personal attacks, in a manner that is civil, factual, cogent, and highly thick-skinned, could have done himself a favor and avoided the use of the Swastika image and the term “global warming Nazis”. But a fair examination of the analogy itself as Dr. Spencer articulates it, taken in combination with the examples I’ve given above (there are dozens more should you like them) leaves one scratching one’s head around the question of whose speech ADL should be condemning in this matter.
Abe, you, Ms. Rose and the ADL do not have to agree with Dr. Spencer’s position on the science, but that is not at issue here. What is at issue is a double standard. To condemn Dr. Spencer’s analogy while remaining silent as his political opponents were guilty of far more egregious speech and imagery of the same type doesn’t look good for ADL.
I leave you with two thoughts as you ponder ADL’s position on this matter.
The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum quotes this text, attributable to Martin Niemoller, and I’m sure you are familiar with it: “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out– Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me–and there was no one left to speak for me.” You may disagree with Dr. Spencer’s use of the imagery and the dreaded “N” word, but I hope you will read the blog post that started this relative to the substance of the analogy, the parallel I offered above, and Niemoller’s important words in historical context.
Finally, ADL Southeast region’s website lists ADL’s Mission Statement, part of which reads, “Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.”
Abe, you are now aware of the more egregious offensive speech and imagery engaged in by opponents of Dr. Spencer. I’m afraid that absent a retraction and apology to Dr. Spencer or, alternatively, a retraction/apology and statement that condemns the use of such rhetoric and imagery by any and all sides in this particular debate, ADL might appear to either be siding with environmental extremists or rather hypocritical. I do not believe either is the image ADL wants to project, and I’m afraid that unless this is resolved quickly and in a more balanced manner, it will receive national attention that won’t be flattering. I would encourage you to act on this matter before the week is out.
Thank you for giving this matter the serious and urgent attention it merits, as well as for the generosity of your time on the phone this morning, and indulging me in the details above.
Alan J. Bressler
[address redacted]
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The glaring question: Why is the Anti Defamation League remaining silent on such a hypocritical travesty of their own making?
There is no sin in admitting a mistake, yet they seem unwilling to even address the issue they created by the actions of one of their employees, and have ignored many reasonable arguments from people close to the issue by lineage and experience. Where is the fairness in this silence?
Although the mandate of “Never Again” has proved difficult to achieve, the lessons of the Holocaust remain relevant and significant in the lives of youth, including the dangers of silence, the consequences of indifference, and the responsibility to protect the vulnerable. – ADL website on education
The issue won’t be going away, and before it escalates further, I hope that ADL will address the issue honestly and openly, rather than remaining silent.
@ur momisugly Poker Guy 11:13.
Except one holocaust was real, the other a paranoid fantasy of academia.
The ADL is toast, barbecued by their own hypocrisy.
CAGW really is an intelligence test.
Belief in such an easily researched nonsense, suggests a person who can be sold most anything, on authority.
Why would we be surprised that these, followers of authority, can then be led to defamation and then violence?
Another WW2 reference; “I was just following orders”.??
Whipping up a mob, has always been the way of those who lust for power.
Consensus, go with the flow,team player,politically correct, all unthinking persons easily swayed with an emotional appeal.
Now as their imagined ascendence to power falls apart, they resort to identify the enemy, defame, dehumanize and then destroy.
Just the death-throws of another pathetic cult.
Poptech, nice list.
Visually what a bunch.These are our intellectual superiors?
Glad they have one thing going for them.
I am coming to the conclusion that the appropriate noun to describe a person in the alarmist camp should be DECEIVER. Whether the individual is deliberately engaged in deceiving others of the overblown dangers of using fossil fuels for personal glory or money or is innocently full of self-deception is immaterial. The result is a society being lead in a direction of great folly.
Deceiver may be the closest counter for the word denier. At least the onus would be on the deceivers to justify their views with solid scientific evidence and argument as the deniers have been doing for a long time.
Silence is consent.
Their silence speaks volumes. For shame.
Pete Postlethwaite has been punished
Powerful letters, both of them. Now that the National Director of ADL has the facts before him and has been made very aware, it will be interesting to see how he responds – hopefully with all his weight behind it. Rose should go. An activist with an agenda has no place with the ADL.
Bob Sheffwiz says
“The Holocaust I care about is the murder of my German relatives by Allied bombers, and their
butchery, including being run over by tanks, by Soviet troops.”
You might consider the following statistics:
For each german civilian killed by Allied bombers a non-german civilian was killed by Luftwaffe bombers.
For each german civilian killed by Allied bombers five russian POW:s starved to death in german POW camps.
For each german civilian killed by Allied bombers ten jews died in german extermination camps.
I could go on.
Help ADL combat hate with your donation. You can learn a lot at their website. I did not know before that numbers 5, 14, 18, 23, and 28 were hate symbols.
“The moral gap between today’s Jewish leadership and the persecuters of Jews in the past century has greatly diminished.”
Do you really think todays’ Jewish leadership (a term which doesn’t strike me as particularly useful) have the morals of those who murdered 6 million of their people during WW2.
Our side is better than theirs. Let’s always try to show it.
jauntycyclist says:
March 3, 2014 at 11:16 am
holocaust denial is based on denying a mountain of evidence.
co2 as the main driver of climate denial is based on denying predictions from unvalidated models, hockey sticks and that this is a spiritual and moral challenge to deindustrialise and live in an eco utopia? ie not believing al gores dvd. Not sure they are equivalent?
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Let me help you with that….no
cn
Here are a few more to add to the list of people comparing sceptics to Holocaust deniers.
Since when did the ADL become the only determinant of the use of the term Nazi? All of Europe and Russia suffered under the Nazis, not just Jews. The whole world is free to use the parallel of
Nazism, without requiring the approval of the ADL.
Thank you Anthony & Poptech.
Outstanding work.
Anthony, after reading the list via Poptech of the Holocaust / sceptic comparison, I have compiled a list of what some people in the debate have proposed as punishment.
VARIOUS PROPOSED TREATMENTS FOR THE ‘DENIERS’
—————————————————-
National Clean Energy Summit With Reid and Schwarzenegger
Speaking of greenhouse gas deniers: “Strap some conservative-thinking people to a tailpipe for an hour and then they will agree it’s a pollutant!”
source Arnolod Schwarzenegger – 2013
—
[Dr. James Hansen]
“…Twenty Years Later: Tipping Points Near on Global Warming
CEOs of fossil energy companies know what they are doing and are aware of long-term consequences of continued business as usual. In my opinion, these CEOs should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature. If their campaigns continue and “succeed” in confusing the public, I anticipate testifying against relevant CEOs in future public trials….”
Huffington Post – 2008
—
[Concerts for a Climate in Crisis]
“Now you’ve heard today a lot of people say that there are many little things that you all can do today to avert climate change on your own……
“This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr – 2007
—
“When we’ve finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we’re in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards — some sort of climate Nuremberg.”
David Roberts – Grist – 2006
—
Jail politicians who ignore climate science: Suzuki
…“What I would challenge you to do is to put a lot of effort into trying to see whether there’s a legal way of throwing our so-called leaders into jail because what they’re doing is a criminal act,” said Dr. Suzuki, a former board member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. “It’s an intergenerational crime in the face of all the knowledge and science from over 20 years.”…
David Suzuki – 2008
—
NYT suggests ‘deniers’ should be stabbed through the heart – like vampires
WUWT – 2014
—
“They are the same people who deny the link between smoking and cancer,” he said. “They are people who say that asbestos is as good as talcum powder – and I hope they put it on their faces every day.”
Dr. Rajendra Pachauri – 2010
—
“If you’re one of those who have spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions, and cattle-prodding democratically-elected governments into submission, then hear this:
We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work.And we be many, but you be few.”
Greenpeace Gene From India – 2010
—
“Resistance at individual and societal levels must be recognized and treated…This kind of cultural resistance to very significant social threat is something that we would expect in any society facing a massive threat,”
Professor Kari Norgaard – 2012
—
“Get rid of any cabinet ministers or senior governmental advisers who refuse to accept the scientific consensus on climate change or who won’t take the risks to the UK seriously.”
source Green Party of England and Wales – 2014
—
“In an age when most people are sensitive to acts of terrorism and the safety of children, I’m stunned the makers behind the “10:10 No Pressure” video would combine these two concepts in order to raise awareness about climate change.
….the video ”punishes” those indifferent to acting on climate change by blowing them up. This includes children. Seriously, blowing up kids?…”
Watching The Deniers
—
“This week we received a deluge of free books from the Heartland Institute {this or this }. The book is entitled “The Mad, Mad, Made World of Climatism”. SHown above, Drs. Bridger and Clements test the flammability of the book.”
San Jose State University – Department of Meteorology and Climate Science – 2013
—
“…If a meteorologist can’t speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn’t give them a Seal of Approval. Clearly, the AMS doesn’t agree that global warming can be blamed on cyclical weather patterns…”
Dr. Heidi Cullen – 2006
[as above]
Death penalty for global warming deniers?
An objective argument…a conservative conclusion
“At the end of that process, some GW deniers would never admit their mistake and as a result they would be executed. Perhaps that would be the only way to stop the rest of them. The death penalty would have been justified in terms of the enormous numbers of saved future lives.”
Richard Parncutt, Professor of Systematic Musicology, University of Graz – 2012
Since many of our opponents are determined to make comparisons, no matter how weak, here are some comparisons to take note of.
—————————
An alternative to the new wave of ecofascism
By liberating humanity from the compulsion to consume, climate catastrophe can be averted without recourse to authoritarianism
“Linkola has built an environmentalist following by calling for an authoritarian, ecological regime that ruthlessly suppresses consumers. Largely unknown outside of Finland until the first English translation of his work was published last year, Linkola represents environmentalism pushed to its totalitarian extreme. “An ecocatastrophe is taking place on earth,” he writes concluding several pages later that “discipline, prohibition, enforcement and oppression” are the only solution.”
Guardian – 2010
—
Fascist Ecology:
The “Green Wing” of the Nazi Party and its Historical Antecedents
“Hitler and Himmler were both strict vegetarians and animal lovers, attracted to nature mysticism and homeopathic cures, and staunchly opposed to vivisection and cruelty to animals. Himmler even established experimental organic farms to grow herbs for SS medicinal purposes. And Hitler, at times, could sound like a veritable Green utopian, discussing authoritatively and in detail various renewable energy sources (including environmentally appropriate hydropower and producing natural gas from sludge) as alternatives to coal, and declaring “water, winds and tides” as the energy path of the future.32″….Her book Blood and Soil, undoubtedly the best single source on Darré in either German or English, consistently downplays the virulently fascist elements in his thinking, portraying him instead as a misguided agrarian radical……….One account even claims that it was Darré who convinced Hitler and Himmler of the necessity of exterminating the Jews and Slavs.44 The ecological aspects of his thought cannot, in sum, be separated from their thoroughly Nazi framework. Far from embodying the ‘redeeming’ facets of National Socialism, Darré represents the baleful specter of ecofascism in power….”
Peter Staudenmaier
—
‘Ecology’ and the Modernization of Fascism in the German Ultra-right
“FAP Nazis especially loathe “humanistically oriented cosmopolitanism.” Marxism, liberalism, and Christianity “have torn humanity from its connectedness to the natural cycles of our earth.” No “technical environmentalism” will succeed against the “increasingly obvious ecological catastrophe,” they believe. Rather, the “disrupted relations between humanity and the rest of nature” require an “ecological revolution” and a “radical revolution in consciousness” that will “lead humanity to a reintegration with the structure of planetary life.” We need a new ethics, they maintain, one in which “humanity, animals and nature are regarded as a unity. Animals are not things” but are “life-forms that feel joy and pain and need our protection.” ”
Janet Biehl
—
HITLER’S HOME LIFE
Teetotal Vegetarian Not Likely to Marry
… chief joy, and he has no hobbies. Two years ago he ceased eating meat, when already a non-smoker and a total ab- stainer, and he has never been so fit as he is now, enjoying the Austrian vegetarian dishes and puddings, which he misses at Munich and Berlin.”
The sister showed the newspaper correspondent Herr Hitler’s bedroom, in which hangs a copy of the Lord’s Prayer.
The Mercury – 1933
—
Eco-fascists: How Radical Conservationists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage
Book Review
“Elizabeth Nickson’s book, “Eco-Fascists: How Radical Conservationists Are Destroying Our Natural Heritage” is a superbly written account of the devastating political agenda of the environmentalist junta. A talented and experienced journalist, Ms. Nickson previously worked as European bureau chief of Life magazine, reporter for Time magazine…..
“I walk the green mile more than anyone I’ve met.” She resides in a sanguine rural setting in Salt Spring Island, B.C. The area is surrounded by a forest, meadows and a ravine. Her living abode is “a green house heated by geothermal” and is “carbon neutral.” More to the point, the house has “no drywall, no paints, no solvents, and could be certified as a healthy house.””
The Washington Times – 2012
—
Does immigration hurt the environment?
“…In fact, anti-immigration campaigners’ attempts to win over environmentalists date back to at least the 1970s, when Herbert Gruhl, a founder of Germany’s Green party, made the ecological case for anti-immigration policies. When German Greens didn’t bite, Gruhl went off in a huff and founded his own far-right ecological party. Since then, his ideas have been championed by German neo-Nazi groups and eagerly embraced by the British National party….”
Guardian – 2008
—
Friedrich Nietzsche and His Proto-Nazi Eco-Fascism
“…Hitler’s lifelong fascination with Nietzsche is corroborated by the fact that the Nazis essentially made the Nietzsche Archives of Weimar the official shrine of their regime in 1933. Even as late as 1944, the green Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) went so far as to say that Nietzsche was the spiritual inspiration of Hitler….”
American Thinker – 2011
—
Holistic Environmental Ethics and the Problem of Ecofascism
…Thus the existence of such a large human population is land ethically wrong. To right that wrong should we not do what we do when a population of white-tailed deer or some other species irrupts and threatens the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community? We immediately and summarily reduce it, by whatever means necessary, usually by randomly and indiscrimi9nately shooting the members of such a population to death – respectfully, of course-until its numbers are optimized….
Baird Callicott – Writings by Aldo Leopold [PDF]
Note: [transcribed by hand by me]
I was listening to the radio the other day where there was a long and interesting segment about “AIDS deniers”. As I listened I found myself becoming annoyed that the same word used to describe us climate skeptics was being applied these charlatans. That reaction made me stop and think. How could I find it annoying that people with nutty ideas about not taking AIDS medication are put in the same category as myself when the category already includes holocaust deniers who are scum of the earth?
I concluded that the word “denier” is associated much more strongly with climate skeptics these days than it is with the holocaust. If I hear someone called simply a denier my first thought is that they are a fellow skeptic and my immediate reaction to them is positive. It seems to me that it is far too late for the ADL to object to this use of the word on the grounds that it might be devalued. That has already happened. If they didn’t want it they should have raised a fuss a decade ago.
The ADL is going to have to start thinking about a new label for holocaust deniers because long misapplication of the word “denier” to climate skeptics is shifting the meaning of the word. Today it is being used to simply mean someone who stands against the scientific “consensus”. Tomorrow it may come to mean someone who BRAVELY opposes the scientific consensus and who is later proved RIGHT. Unless the ADL wants holocaust denial to assume such connotations they will be forced to find another word.
tty says:
March 3, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Bob Sheffwiz says
“The Holocaust I care about is the murder of my German relatives by Allied bombers, and their
butchery, including being run over by tanks, by Soviet troops.”
You might consider the following statistics:
For each german civilian killed by Allied bombers a non-german civilian was killed by Luftwaffe bombers.
For each german civilian killed by Allied bombers five russian POW:s starved to death in german POW camps.
For each german civilian killed by Allied bombers ten jews died in german extermination camps.
I could go on.
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And the Germans started it.
Ouch.
cn
The moderators must be working very hard today. So much use of the D word!
Well, I’m cancelling my ADL membership. The hypocrisy is unbearable. And the kids who answered my calls at the regional and the national offices were just rude.
My annual contribution will now go to support WUWT, Climate Audit, Bishop Hill, etc.
Good work on this Anthony – even though it depressed the hell out of me, I respect intellectual honesty above all else.
AGW_Skeptic says:
March 3, 2014 at 11:27 am
http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/
Comments for the press release are still closed, but some of the un-censored comments have reappeard.
————————————————————————————————————–
Very interesting. Let me point out a curious addition to the restored comments. At the very bottom of the comments is one from ‘CB’. I have been engaged with this one on some recent articles elsewhere. I had never seen her around prior. Now she is the last comment of the restored group. I would have to suspect that this is the author, herself. She makes some of the most idiotic statements that I have ever read in the last 6 years of discussing climate. Was her comment on the page when it was initially closed? The comment which she makes is identical in content to those I have seen her make over the last week at the ‘daily caller’ and now at ‘breitbart’. I won’t dialogue with her anymore. There is no point in dialoguing with this person. If she was able to add her comment at the ADL site after the closing of the thread, then that means that she has some control over that thread. I remember one of us here had made a screenshot of the page prior to the closing and removal of the comments. Was ‘CB’ the last comment on the page?
I note that my comment on that page was restored, although it had been one of the original deleted comments.
Mark Bofill:
That is absolutely right. But I believe it must be the first time that such dehumanising language has arisen directly from the ashes of a previous genocide where the targets (sceptics) have had absolutely nothing to do with the original (and horrendous) crime.
In considering the blindness involved it is well worth re-reading Steve Mcintyre’s words about the Australian psychologist Paul Bain on this in his brilliant takedown of Stephan Lewandowsky in September 2012:
Many thanks to Andrew of PopularTechnology and to Anthony for making clear how far the ‘derogatory epithets’ have already spread. Roy Spencer was absolutely right in my view right to say eleven days ago:
WUWT is as ever leading the charge and we are deeply grateful.
pokerguy says:
March 3, 2014 at 11:13 am
“You’re not going to get anywhere by claiming the comparison trivializes the holocaust.”
That reflects the insanity of the warming movement on the face of it. Of course “denier” trivializes the memory of the holocaust and reflects the delusions the modern left has been sinking to in particular since the 60’s.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2014/02/28/exclusive-former-greenpeace-founders-reality-check-liberals
The Holocaust is probably the most documented atrocity in history. While there are certainly avenues of valid historical inquiry about the precise details of the Holocaust, the general outline is extremely well documented and all but rock-solid. What’s more, there Holocaust is the most plausible explanation for the death of millions of European Jews – there are no plausible explanation aside from organized mass murder.
Climate change is a poorly understood subject, and any deaths from human-caused Global Warming have yet to occur. There are a number of alternative explanations for global warming besides humans. The two have so little in common that only a bigot would conflate the two.
I am especially annoyed by Phil Plait claiming that the two are similar. Scientific consensus has been wrong before. For example, the conventional wisdom among doctors was that ulcers were caused by stress and innate defects in the gastric lining. The idea of bacteria growing in the roiling acids of the stomach sounded laughable, and they scoffed when a research claimed Helicobacter pylori was the responsible agent. Now, antibiotics are standard anti-ulcer therapy. If people remained with the scientific consensus, a lot of people would still be suffering.
Abe Foxman has announced his retirement. I doubt that he will take strong action one way or the other in regard to an issue as controversial as this at this point in his career.
REPLY: Not until July 2015
http://www.adl.org/press-center/press-releases/miscellaneous/abraham-foxman-to-step-down-as-national-director-july-2015.html
– Anthony