![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.
Just for dear old George Moonbat…
I still don’t understand how climate science has anything to do with Hitler or WWII or the Jews or anyone else who died during WWII. Whoever uses references to atrocities that occurred during WWII in their arguments for or against catastrophic climate change are idiots. Just stick with the facts. What does the scientific evidence support ?
Excellent list, excellent article!
In addition to making a stupidly cynical excuse, Foxman is not being truthful. The ADL was put on notice about this issue by a column published in the Jewish Journal four years ago. See here:
http://www.jewishjournal.com/dennis_prager/article/when_jews_on_the_left_see_americans_on_the_right_as_nazis_20100504
Note that this column includes specific reference to Ellen Goodman’s quote equating global warming skeptics with Holocaust deniers. Also note that this column calls ADL to task for its politically biased treatment of people using WWII imagery for current domestic use, and not just for climate. ADL applies their double standard to lots of political positions with which they do not agree. If you are a liberal Jew like Ellen Goodman, you get free reign to shout “DENIER” at anyone you want – so long as they are sitting to the right of the ADL. If anyone says it back at you, ADL brings down the hammer.
Anthony would be well served to contact Dennis Prager at the Jewish Journal, and see if together they could get some traction with Foxman.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, however. From the quote above, note that Algore has his ADL pass to use Holocaust imagery for “global warming” propaganda. That article was published in the New York Times under the title “An Ecological Kristallnacht. Listen.” But when Glen Beck said this about Algore …
… Abe Foxman himself issued a press release against Beck, saying ““Glenn Beck’s linkage of Hitler’s plan to round up and exterminate Jews with Al Gore’s efforts to raise awareness of global warming is outrageous, insensitive, and deeply offensive.”
And that was three months after Goodman’s “Holocaust” column …
Abe Foxman is not an honest man.
Bob Sheffwiz:
And your response to the Third Reich would have been….?
The leader of the UK Labour party Ed Miliband has joined the ecofascist chorus:
Prime ministers questions 26th Feb 2014
“Will the Prime Minister clarify his position? Is he happy to have climate change den!ers in his Government?…The whole country will have heard that the Prime Minister cannot answer the question about whether people need to believe in man-made climate change to be part of his Government. He has gone from thinking that it was a basic part of his credo to thinking that it is a matter of individual conscience.”
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140226/debtext/140226-0001.htm
What more proof is needed that ‘climate change’ is now a dogmatic and militant religious creed?
The leader of the opposition believes ‘den!ers’ have no place in the democratic process.
We skeptics don’t seem to have an issue with referring to Holocaust deniers for what they are. We don’t because we believe with absolute certainty that the evidence for the Holocaust is unequivocal and that it was true. This is exactly the same reason why AGW mythologists feel no compunction about using ‘denial’ to refer to us.
I am compiling an interesting shortish list. I would then like any Warmists here to respond. It will really be interesting to read the ummmmm, ahhhhhh, ummmmm, ahhhhhh. The ADL messed with the wrong crowd, we have been defending ourselves for years against a well funded onslaught. It gets quite easy as the years go by.
Michael Mann cannot claim he was not aware of how denier/denial/denialism was being used, as per Poptech’s excellent list, or on a personal level:
3 March 2012: Guardian: Live Q&A: Climate scientist Michael Mann on the ‘hockey stick’ controversy
Question: thefandango 28 February 2012 4:47PM
Micheal –
Given that the term “denier” has obvious holocaust denial connotations, do you think that your use of that word is:
1. unacceptable for a scientist to use
2. one that could incite certain elements to violence against people who question the concensus
Or do you consider it a reasonable term?
Michael Mann:
Frankly, I think those who complain about this are often just producing crocodiles tears. As someone who lost relatives to the religious persecution of the jewish people, I would be as sensitive to anyone if I really though the use of the term has anything whatsoever do do with the holocaust. I find that argument quite disingenuous if not downright dishonest. For those who are denying mainstream science, the logical thing to call them is “deniers”. they are certainly not “skeptics” and even “contrarian” doesn’t always fit the bill. Given that some of the fiercest of our detractors have proudly declared themselves deniers (one such individual even wrote a book “The Deniers”) I find that this argument has no currency at all. I suspect its often used as a somewhat disingenuous ploy to get journalists and other commentators to grant the highly undeserved term of “skeptic” to those who are nothing of the sort…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2012/feb/27/michael-mann-climate-change-live-q-and-a
17 Feb 2012: Guardian: Suzanne Goldenberg: The inside story on climate scientists under siege
(Michael Mann): “When it comes to climate change, true scepticism is two-sided. One-sided scepticism is no scepticism at all,” he said. “I will call people who deny the science deniers … I guess I won’t be deterred by the fact that they don’t like the use of that term and no doubt that just endears me to them further.”…
“I think increasingly the campaign to deny the reality of climate change is going to come up against that brick wall of the evidence being so plain to people whether they are hunters, fishermen, gardeners,” he said…
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/feb/17/michael-mann-climate-war
Mann, nonetheles, has chosen to continue using the denier terms up to the present:
26 Jan 2014: Aljazeera: Amel Ahmed: Prominent scientist suing climate change deniers for libel
(Michael Mann): “The tactics climate-change deniers employ is based on the idea that if they can discredit one prominent scientist, they can discredit the entire environmental movement. They’re also trying to serve notice to other scientists who think about speaking out,” he said.
Mann’s lawyer John B. Williams added that the invidious nature of some comments from climate-change deniers was “sidetracking the real debate, which is science-based.”…
Mann became a target for climate-change deniers in 1999, when he published the “hockey stick” chart showing rising global temperatures…
(Michael Mann): “These allegations have been reviewed by the highest scientific authorities in the land. None of them found any evidence of impropriety. And yet they continue to be laundered by climate-change deniers,” he told Al Jazeera…
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/26/judge-allows-climatescientisttomoveforwardwithdefamationcase.html
Here’s another column by Dennis Prager of the Jewish Journal, this one published in David Horowitz’s Frontpagemag:
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=155
This one directly addresses the “AGW sceptic = Holocaust denier” column by Ellen Goodman – immediately after she published it seven years ago. And he calls out ADL. And ADL played dumb. Seven years ago.
Strains credulity that Foxman claims to have been ignorant of all of this. Evidently, neither Abe Foxman nor anyone else in the ADL read Ellen Goodman’s nationally syndicated column. Or the Jewish Journal. Or Horowitz’s magazine. Or the NYT op-ed page. Apparently, they’ve been too busy keeping up with Glen Beck’s TV show and Roy Spencer’s blog.
Odd, that.
Given the ever rising death toll, perhaps the pushers of carbon mitigation schemes are really guilty of mass projection.
It is hard to deny, that political decisions to dilute our fuels with corn ethanol drove the price of basic foods up.Destabilizing the poorer countries, people starved or were killed in the ensuing chaos.
That the “incentives” to well-connected alternate energy artists, added to the cost of every users electricity bill,forcing many into fuel poverty.
That the policy decisions to forbid loans for reliable energy projects, by the IMF and world banking organizations have denied Africans access to reliable and affordable electricity.
Ensuring no access to refrigeration for food and medicine.
Still some million children die of preventable causes before they reach 5 years old, but the magic gas has priority over poor brown people.
Construction of required infrastructure is brushed aside, prevented, all for feel good posturing.
Denial is just a river in Egypt.
Seems very strange that persons so concerned about the future of their grandchildren, can be so blind to the reality their policies create.
Looks like, smells like and walks like Eugenics 2.0
But when you know you have chosen the path of righteousness, all good folk tell you so, you are hardly likely to consider that you might be wrong, or that you are acting badly toward others.
Why bother yourself with the Anti-Defamation League? They are simply a group of tiresome, run-of-the-mill censors with their own agenda.
“Inappropriate Comparisons Trivialize the Holocaust” – Abraham Foxman, ADL Director
You could interpret that statement as saying the CAGW deniers are much worse……
Not to push any buttons here but the ADL seems to be going down the road of the NAACP.
Where was it when Clarence Thomas’s appointment to the Supreme Court was being opposed by a trumped up sexual harassment charge? (For those unfamiliar with it, the charge had already been investigated and dismissed. But when nothing else could be found against him, Senator Metzenbaum’s office made the charge public.)
Has the ADL been subverted from it’s cause?
Actions speak louder than words and silence louder than actions.
goldminor says:
March 3, 2014 at 12:40 pm
I have opened up that link twice, now. I don’t see any comments. Weird.
About “CB,” someone here showed a screenshot of the original comments; you seem to be looking at a copy of that version. CB’s comment was a Reply to the first comment on the page … somehow it's now showing as the last comment. The order of the comments has been 'corrupted' or something. In other words, the screenshot showed all the original comments, then started to show the replies but only got as far as the first reply. (Hope that makes sense.)
So, no, CB has no control over comments on the ADL site. In fact, he/she freaked out … thought that us 'evil den!ers' had 'false flagged' it's comments and were stalking it. Even temporarily set it's privacy settings to Private … until I pointed out that ADL, itself, had deleted ALL comments, not just CB's.
I was one of the ones who replied to his/her comments on ADL. I have since, like you, encountered CB on TheDC and Breitbart … I believe CB is now following me around the internet (any website that uses Disqus) and badgering me. I probably should start ignoring it and maybe it will lose interest. Either that, or I will have to change my Disqus privacy settings. I've encountered this troll before on various other websites. It is irrational, illogical, immature, and repeats the same nonsense over and over … and is constantly hijacking threads like he attempted to do at ADL.
That the need to resort to such insults is seen at all shows how little is really is to do with the science and how much it is to do with a demand for obedience to the AGW dogma.
The need to paint AGW sceptics as not just wrong , but ‘mad or bad’ has no scientific basis rather it finds a happy home with those with extreme religions or political view who show the same total intolerance to those that commit ‘the crime ‘ of failing to their unquestioning faith in ‘the cause ‘
Oops. Sorry about the formatting faux pas! Mods?
REPLY: so horribly botched that I refuse to try to correct it – Anthony
[Since I have more time on my hands than Anthony, who is always overworked, I fixed it. ~ mod.]
for those discussing the returned comments at the original press release? I go there now and all comments are removed.
The more the facts and science deny that CO2 and its increase is a problem and the more that the World’s temperatures stay unresponsive, the shriller become the screams of the Warmistas against the “Deniers”. The Deniers ranks now include the facts and the Science.
Where have all the comments gone, a long, long time ago?
See: http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/
Zero comments now and a notice that comments are closed.
If they were saved, maybe reposting them here would be appropriate. Or perhaps just reposting them in other recent news or press releases on the adl site that still are open to comments.
Michael Mann has publically stated on his FB page. “… As one of jewish heritage, I would not use the term “denier” if I thought that it had any Holocaust connotations whatsoever, as this would detract from the seriousness of that horrible episode in history. …”
Michael Mann has not publically chastised most of those 40 people (quoted by Poptech in Anthony’s post) about their very explicit and direct comparison of climate ‘deniers’ to holocaust deniers. He should now do so, given his position on such comparisons. With this WUWT post he cannot now say he was unaware of their linking of climate ‘deniers’ with holocaust deniers.
All bold emphasis in the following blockquote is mine.
John
REPLY: Not until July 2015
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
That is a blink of an eye to this man.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not excusing him. The ADL has evolved into a very left leaning organization that embraces what is in many cases the very source of the antisemitism they they are supposed to be fighting. They are blind to this. Don’t ask me to explain it, I cannot. But if they are blind to THAT, then I hold out little hope that they’ll be any less blind to the issues you raise.
I’d volunteer for a discussion panel with them, but I think you have a better talent pool than me to draw upon. Ask Richard Lindzen to volunteer, and/or Ira Glickstein….
The irony abounds…
The ADL defames a climate scientist for his ironic, satirical response to defamation.
Dave D says:
March 3, 2014 at 10:56 am
I have often thought Skeptics (of which I am one) are overly sensitive to the word denialist or deniers (of which I am also one – of the AGW Theory). The idea that that a denier is anything more than someone who refutes of blocks something, in this case the AGW theory, is a stretch.
————————————————————————————————————————-
Dave,
I tend to agree with you as far as the word itself is concerned, but not regarding the nature of its use. There is nothing linguistically wrong with calling someone “black”, but when used in a derogatory and hate-filled way it’s unacceptable. Because of that, any decent person avoids using it unless they know they’re in safe company, where their meaning won’t be misunderstood or offensive, I have had black friends in the past who I knew I could safely use the “N” word with, but I wouldn’t dream of using it within earshot of others who might not understand.
The intention of using “denier” in the context of AGW debate is made abundantly clear from the examples quoted in this post, and it IS intended to draw similarities to Holocauset deniers. Personally, I find that more deeply offensive to the victims of the Holocaust than I do to myself, but others may well be offended themselves, which is obviously the intent.
Given that obvious intent, decent people, whether they believe in AGW or not, should no more use the term than they should call their friends niggers in public!
Meanwhile, I’ve also written briefly to the ADL (through their standard web contact form, which may have different gatekeepers to specific email addresses 😉 ) for all the good it may do:
Dear Sir or Madam,
You may be aware of the press release prepared by your Alberta office recently, condemning (I believe rightly) comments made by Dr R Spencer. It is available here:
http://atlanta.adl.org/news/adl-condemns-spencers-nazi-analogy/
As I say, I believe it right to condemn such comments, as it is to condemn any comments that tend to trivialise the Holocaust.
However, the ADL has been silent for a long time while similar, even more direct, comparisons have been made by high profile Anthropogenic Global Warming supporters in denigration of AGW sceptics.
Rather than list examples here, I hope you will take the small time needed to see the examples (all referenced) compiled here:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/03/the-silence-of-the-anti-defamation-league-suggests-they-endorse-defamation-of-climate-skeptics/#more-104205
Clearly, comments such as “At its core, global warming denial is like Holocaust denial, an assault on common decency.“, “I think these people are anti-science flat-earthers. …They are every bit as dangerous as Holocaust deniers.“ or “[…] I put this [AGW scepticism] in a similar moral category to Holocaust denial.“ are far more direct and explicit trivialisations of the Holocaust than any of Dr Pielke’s comments. Yet these comments have gone unchallenged for years.
Is it not time that the ADL, with its laudable aims, openly denounced such langauge and such comparisons from ALL sides?
Can it be right or just for some to make such comments openly and unchallenged, while others condemned for finally answering in suit?
I would respectfully suggest that such apparent hypocricy is not only damaging to the credibility fo an organisation promoting the end of hate, but also insulting to those who suffered, at least in part, because of the reluctance of others to speak out from the start.
I have always thought that the term deniers has been a bit of an own goal for the alarmists, it smacked of bullying and a lack of science on their part where they had to resort to name calling,
Most people I know found it quite offensive, sort of recoiled from wanting to be associated with those using the term.
It all felt a bit mucky.