Last weekend, I conducted a poll asking this question that has been on my mind for a couple of years:
Is it time for an “official” climate skeptics organization, one that produces a policy statement, issues press releases, and provides educational guidance?
The results are in, seen below, and there is an interesting dichotomy that can be observed in the excercise.
I’ve closed the poll with a count of 2701 votes. While there was a clearly decisive result, there were over 440 comments on the thread, many of which argued for “no”. A common reason discussed was that “organizing skeptics is like herding cats” or that “it will provide a target”. While that may be true, I really wasn’t all that interested in herding or target practice, I was thinking about representation. By its nature, all representation of varied viewpoints of a group of people is imperfect, but it does have its advantages if that representation satisfies a common need. The common need I see is getting a slowdown on the freight train of bureaucracy that is growing from CAGW claims and more coverage in media.
Pointman writes about the poll results and that dichotomy in Get real, get organised and finish it.
Anthony Watts recently ran a poll at WUWT that posed the question – “Is it time for an “official” climate skeptics organization, one that produces a policy statement, issues press releases, and provides educational guidance?”
I voted “yes” and I’d like to outline my reasons for doing so.
Any scattered and disparate opposition to an unjust law, policy or controversial issue which doesn’t get organised under some umbrella organisation is not only politically naïve but a consequently weak faction which doesn’t need to be taken seriously. More often than not, they’re comfortable in their armchairs living in their own deluded and secluded cloud cuckoo land.
There’s nicer ways of saying it but if want to be a force to be reckoned with, you have to get all ganged up. You seriously want to take on that exploitive employer, get unionised brothers and sisters. You want political change, form a lobby group. You don’t want that wind farm monstrosity blighting your life, start a local campaigning group. You want equal civil rights irrespective of the colour of your ass, start marching en masse. You want women to have the vote, get those bustles out of the drawing rooms and onto the streets as a mob waving placards and make the powers that be listen to you.
There’s simply no other way to get an issue onto the political agenda, and if you happen to think global warming isn’t a political thing, you pop that blue pill brother and dream on.
Give people a standard they can rally to and if the cause has real popular support, they’ll flock to it and become a bigger voice which will be heard despite any attempts to suppress it. Those attempts will just serve to strengthen group identity and make it a much more powerful force.
The deep primordial history of us as a species is all about getting together and cooperation. You might be rubbish at knapping a flint spearhead, but as long as one of the group can do that specialist thing, everyone is happy. Crap at tracking game? No matter, that runty kid over there is somehow brilliant at it. You might just be a spear carrier, but you know you play your part for the good of everyone else. That compulsion to gang up and work together is by now deeply embedded in our DNA. It’s been selected for. Without it, civilisation would fall apart in a day.
The worst thing you can ever do is sit in grumpy isolation doing nothing more than bitching away to a few cronies, and that’s exactly what’s all too common across the skeptic blogosphere. I call it the whinge and dump mentality and in the whole history of the human race, it’s never achieved anything other than being known as a complete bore to be avoided at all costs. Here they come – run away, run away!
As I look at the poll results to date, out of 2,683 votes cast, the response was 63% Yes, 24% No and the rest going for unsure. Scanning through the five hundred comments below the piece, a substantial majority expressed a “No” for various reasons. That’s an interesting dichotomy but an unsurprising one given the web dynamics of such a controversial issue as global warming.
There are just simply too many polarised people on either side who’ve spent years doing nothing more than venting spleen at each other. It’s become a social activity, a recreational pastime, a macho ego trip, a catharsis for a lot of tangential frustrations. Log in quickly, hurl an insult or two and surf onto the next brawl. Underneath the most combative blogs, out of hundreds of comments, barely a single digit percentage of the comments even reference the original blog topic, whatever it was.
Full essay here: http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/get-real-get-organised-and-finish-it/
He’s right, it has become a social spleen venting activity, and that my friends doesn’t get much traction.
This passage:
More often than not, they’re comfortable in their armchairs living in their own deluded and secluded cloud cuckoo land.
There’s nicer ways of saying it but if want to be a force to be reckoned with, you have to get all ganged up.
Could just as easily be used to describe crazy Bill McKibben. Most of us think he’s nuts, and he most likely is. The difference is he got out of his “armchairs living in their own deluded and secluded cloud cuckoo land” and formed 350.org. Now look at what we have, an organization that has successfully lobbied for blocking the Keystone pipeline by affecting the office of presidency. Do you think weepy Bill could do that himself without having organized first?
Think about it, and sound off in comments.
we have seen the MSM repeatedly quote CAGW proponents claiming the MSM is giving too much time to CAGW sceptics, & how they need to learn to communicate better, yet we know sceptics are rarely given any MSM time at all & not one is a household name, except for those few who are mocked as being far right CAGW deniers.
yet the proponents sound genuinely fearful of this sceptical voice. why? it is not because of Heartland, or GWPF, both of which are easy targets for MSM stereo-typing & left/right framing. i am convinced it is because of the more broad political leanings (tho majority conservative) of the thousands who visit and/or participate on WUWT, JoanneNova, Bishop Hill, Climate Depot, etc.
MSM is monolithic when it comes to CAGW promotion. their response to Climategate proved that.
they will not budge, even if it means the further diminution of their audience, so i still believe it’s more effective to have an unruly CAGW sceptic blogosphere that drives The CAGW Team insane than to have an organisation. after all, how could a WUWT Organisation compete with this?
23 April: Time: TIME 100 Pioneers
Katharine Hayhoe
By Don Cheadle
An environmental evangelist
There’s something fascinating about a smart person who defies stereotype. That’s what makes my friend Katharine Hayhoe — a Texas Tech climatologist and an evangelical Christian — so interesting.
It’s hard to be a good steward of the planet if you don’t accept the hard science behind what’s harming it, and it can be just as hard to take action to protect our world if you don’t love it as the rare gift it is…
I got to know Katharine as we worked on Showtime’s climate documentary Years of Living Dangerously.
(Cheadle is an actor, producer and Academy Award nominee)
http://time.com/#70881/katharine-hayhoe-2014-time-100/
Christian News Wire: Evangelical Christian Named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People for Work on Climate
FRANKLIN, Ind., April 24, 2014 Statement by the Rev. Mitch Hescox, President & CEO, Evangelical Environmental Network
We are pleased that Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, scientific advisor to the Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), has been named TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world (time.com/70881/katharine-hayhoe-2014-time-100/). Dr. Hayhoe demonstrates that a person of strong evangelical faith can also be a world-class scientist. She understands that creation-care is truly a matter of life and speaks to churches and conservative groups across the country to demonstrate the need to take prudent steps to address climate change…
Dr. Hayhoe’s efforts have led to her being targeted by climate deniers like Rush Limbaugh, resulting in a continual fuselage of opposition — even threats to her family.
But it is precisely her love for her children and for Jesus Christ that has Dr. Hayhoe refusing to be intimidated from speaking the truth.
Dr. Hayhoe and her husband Dr. Andrew Farley’s seminal book, A Climate For Change, has been instrumental in educating the evangelical church…
My support and appreciation for Dr. Hayhoe is summarized in her own words:
“It’s not about saving the planet: the planet will be fine without us. It’s about helping people, real people who are being affected by climate change today. Higher energy bills for air conditioning, freak rainstorms, and droughts wiping out their food supply -rising sea level threatening their homes and fields. It’s the poor and disadvantaged who are being hardest hit: those very people the Bible tells us to care for.”
Dr. Hayhoe is a top communicator in the field of climate science and her evangelical prospective informs her views on the need to protect human life…
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/5164474039.html
i rest my case.
“Is it time for an “official” climate skeptics organization..?”
Sounds like a damn fine idea to me. About time! (Wish I’d thought of it!)
I have scanned over all of the responses to your article and based on they’re responses, determined that 97-percent agree that a skeptic organization should be formed. So now that’s settled.
The best thing this site does is provide reference material that is up to date and credible. It also provides knowledge that there are other people out there who recognize the AGW folly for what it is. We your readers and contributors are scattered in all sorts of odd places in the world with different governments at local,state and federal level. I am proud to quote this site in an argument as I know it follows pursuit of excellence in science. Stick to your knitting and know you do an excellent job. It is our role to take on the politics. I suspect many of your readers have already got involved as I have done here in Oz. I would encourage others to do the same if they feel strongly enough.
Pointman makes a very good argument, but the discussion about Heartland highlights what would very quickly go wrong with any such organization. It was asked, “why not just support Heartland?” and in reply, the answer was “well that is seen as a purely Republican organization. We need something less political.”
As soon as any skeptical organization is created, some Republican office holder will praise it. (Inhofe, guaranteed,and there will be others) The instant this happens, those well funded forces on the warmist side (you know who they are) will INSTANTLY launch into a high dollar, multi-platform campaign loudly labeling whatever organization we may create as nothing but a junior farm team for the GOP and/or the tea party. Every mass media outlet in the country will repeat this message over,and over, and over,and the organization will be politically marginalized within weeks of it’s creation.
It doesn’t matter if this message is true or false; in fact I must say that anyone who thinks that concepts such as “truth” or “falsehood” have ANY bearing in the political arena today is touchingly naive. That’s one reason why this is such a hard fight – ALL of the official mouthpieces of the state and the culture are against us. The instant we give them a nice, solid target to aim at, they will spend every penny they can, and use every venue they control (which is just about all of them) portraying everyone who even thinks a skeptical thought as the next Clive Bundy.
Right now, men like McKibben are extremely frustrated, because they have no firm target at which they can aim the hundreds of millions of dollars of special interest money which has and will be placed at their disposal. Create an umbrella organization, and you create a focal point for all of their hate and destructive power, and it is vast.
Pointman, you are a fine man and a marvelous idealist. But as I recall, you live in the UK and thus you cannot appreciate how toxic, venal, and destructive the US political system has become. It’s already been well established, in open congressional testimony, that the IRS is being used to target those who are seen to be acting contrary to this administrations interests in an organized, political way. As a pseudonymous poster, I am not enough of a threat for the IRS to be sent after me – but as a supporter of an organization that will instantly be seen as “The Enemy”, I will be, and so will people like our host here.
Our anonymity here is our great protection. De Gaulle and the french resistance didn’t overthrow Vichy France by creating an open, public organization and sending all of their supporter’s names to Marshall Petain. If we *do* create some kind of “organization” (although I think we don’t need it) then the Resistance is the model we have to take – organization by cells, and no one knowing the full names of anyone outside their own cells. Anything other than that will expose us all to personal, financial destruction.
I know this may sound extreme, especially to people like us, who like to consider ourselves “reasonable”; but this is the nature of the forces we are opposing. We dare not underestimate them with foolish and naive overestimation’s of our own survivability when our enemies realize that their survival depends on their ability to marginalize and/or eliminate us.
But for those who think we really *do* need a public organization, then just sign up with Heartland, and make them as big and strong as possible. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel here.
Look to other activisms organizations. I am an activist, a bicyclist and a legally armed citizen, but I despise the NRA and LAB for much the same reasons. Both have subscription as their business model, so that their subscribers are unable to admit the dollar value of their foolishness.
What would be the aim of such an organization?
Would it be to present the scientific case against the AGW story to the general public of the world?
Would it be to persuade the world media to give more attention to that case?
Would it be to persuade the US government to change its policies?
Would it recognize that there are in fact other countries and other governments in the world?
Would it solely present the scientific case, or would it issue political pronouncments?
If so, what sort of political pronouncements? (A lot of commenters on this site spend their electrons on fulminating against “liberals”, “left wingers”, and so forth. This sort of thing may serve to vent their spleen – it may even have some truth in it – but it will just be rejected by the rest of society. Insulting half the world is not the best way of persuading them. And, if the main point is that AGW is probably not true, it is irrelevant to the main point.)
These, and probably a bunch of other questions, need to answered before any such organization is set up.
Too busy to leave original comment, however I can see value in creating a more organised sceptic view. One of the real problems is that sceptical views are reactive ie we only comment after the fact of a pro climate change paper or view. In other words we react rather than being proactive. It would be beneficial to publish analysis and views for the climate lobby to react to. Similarly, it would be good to sponsor original unbiased research. These would be ideal but they cost lots. An unbiased journal and genuine investigative research would go a long way to supporting real analysis of changes in the climate. However, the cost would I think be prohibitive and the negative press from the establishment would be difficult to overcome. Any research organisation that we sponsored would be castigated by the establishment. So my conclusion is that the idea is sound but the negative issues probably make it impossible without a mountain of cash. So I think we will continue as we are reacting to biased papers and poor research
I voted ‘yes’ and I largely agree with Pointman’s justifications. Ultimately, skeptics are not fighting a scientific battle; the scientific uncertainties are still wide enough to accomodate most scenarios, and perceptions about which scenarios are most likely are skewed by the most dominant players in a narrative war. Skeptics are fighting an apocalyptic narrative, which is still winning despite the long ‘pause’, and has gained huge representation. A much bigger platform of skeptic representation is needed to present counter-narratives. The GWPF are doing a great job, but more is needed, also linked to a perceived mass (or at least sizeable) movement, and preferably US based.
ONE QUESTION – membership organization or not?
So who will spin his so called “policy statement”, and be judge over the many disparate and contradictory ideas and beliefs? Which will be in, and which will be out?
I read and understood and agreed in part with Mosher’s critique about “what I believe”.
HOWEVER, I’ve actually run local level political campaigns and I am hear to tell you I could not win so much as a 4-3 victory on the local school board without making alliances with people and viewpoints I not only failed to share, but actively opposed.
What I believe is that the climate, changing or otherwise, is not worth going to war with China for. And that presuming the science is correct, and that the need for reductions in coal consumption are necessary, China (and India) must be persuaded or prevented from burning the stuff. A treaty and an international tax scheme are fine but without teeth, in the form of armed intervention to enforce (emphasis on the syllable FORCE) compliance, any treaty is going to be ineffective.
Do 97% of any group suggest that war or the risk of war is a good thing for this planet, polar bears, bald eagles, ice worms, corals, or what have you?
To avoid an unnecessary war I will make alliances with nutters who believe CO2 absorbtion in the atmosphere is already saturated. To avoid stupid war I will make alliances with nut jobs who oppose the UN Agenda 21, blue helmets, and black helmets. To avoid a useless war I will make alliances with whack-job radio DJ’s who abuse their publishers by tossing the word “Fraudulent” around carelessly. Etc.
Good arguments for the pro-side, but realize that maintaining discipline will be difficult for a climate skeptics organization. The CAGW crowd is emotionally bought in to their one bete-noir – CO2. Skeptics, on the other hand, are all over the lot on numerous issues and often at odds with each other. You also will have to have a firm policy on banishment of nutters who will claim to speak for the organization, or at least be categorized as such by a hostile press and opponents. Expect to spend lots of effort on damage control of bad press. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, just that you better count the cost before jumping in.
Anthony et al,
Good comments all around. I would note that:
1. There are a LOT of smart (self-taught or schooled) people who read, comment or post to WUWT.
2. There are a LOT of non-WUWT individuals and groups and organizations (Burt Rutan, NASA astronauts, etc.) that have come out and made public statements defending science and opposing the abuse and waste of the people’s money to fight a problem that doesn’t exist.
3. We love being here for the learning, the eye-opening science and debate that a fine place like WUWT provides.
What I’m trying to say is, Anthony, you have the resources at your disposal in terms of intellect, science and supporters to make a difference. Lives ARE at stake, and not because of CO2.
We can read here that the electrical grid is being stretched to the breaking point.
Does Congress know? Does the public know?
We can read here that coral reefs naturally adjust to sea level, and this was known over 150 years ago.
Does Congress know? Does the public know?
Many other examples could be provided but those will suffice for now.
I think if you can serve science, preserve science, educate the public and their elected representatives then this is a noble cause.
As a person skeptical of the so-called “greenhouse effect”, I will be left to the wayside by such a group anyway. Or will there be provision for those of us who do not “fit in”?
Keep it simple with a straightforward blanket mission statement that allows most nuanced skeptical positions in, something like ‘we don’t support the theory that industrial carbon dioxide emissions can effect the earth’s climate systems.’
Per Wikipedia: “According to Time, RealClimate is “in line with the Web’s original purpose: scientific communication” with a “straightforward presentation of the physical evidence for global warming”.[9]”
An organization which had a true scientific communication goal would communicate physical evidence either pro or con regarding the presently accepted arguements regarding ‘global warming’. Perhaps such an organizarion which is not oriented toward propaganda such as “Real Climate” is, could have an impact. The name of the organization should reflect that goal of non-partisanship. At least that is one way to look at it.
Back in June 2009 (five years ago!), here on WUWT, Mike D, TonyB and I discussed forming a Climate Realist organization of some sort. The idea as it evolved was to mirror organizations like the Sierra Club, the World Wildlife Fund, etc., but on the other side, in favor of Progress, Energy, and rational Conservation. At some point, in private correspondence, we came up with a name: Terra Home. I think Mike even registered a domain with that name, but I can’t find it now; the idea seemed to die on the vine (Mike’s own website, Western Institute for Study of the Environment [ http://westinstenv.org/index.php?req=/ ] appears to have been put on hiatus).
Maybe it’s time to resurrect Terra Home. FWIW, here are my contributions to the discussion back in 2009:
* * * * *
Re Mike D.’s post (00:02:57) on the need for political organization to combat the Alarmist onslaught, maybe we should think about marketing to the youth, as the Alarmists do, and as Obama did during the election, even to kids 12 and under (get your parents to vote for Obama!). . .
Perhaps the focus should be on CO2. “They want to take away our CO2!” “They’re coming for your CO2!” “Our plants need CO2! Don’t let the politicians take it away!” I.e., terms kids 12 and under can understand.
Other ideas welcome.
/Mr Lynn
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/02/lindzens-climate-sensitivty-talk-iccc-june-2-2009/#comment-139520
* * * * *
Not bad, Mike. We might also consider re-conquering the emotional high ground that the enviro-whackos have captured, e.g.: The International Society for Progress and the Environment (TISPE). After all, it’s about more than climate, though that is the current focal point. A shorter name wouldn’t hurt, either. How about Eco-Progress International?
/Mr Lynn
* * * * *
[M. Simon had some suggestions about “getting word out.” I responded:]
Sounds like a good idea for spreading the word, but I think what Mike D. and I were talking about was actually organizing groups of people, an organization (if not a movement) that would be able to exert political influence in favor of a Realist approach to issues of energy, climate, environment, and the future of humanity, an organization to counter the intense propaganda and lobbying of Alarmist organizations like Greenpeace, the WWF, etc.
Obviously there are groups or organizations today that promote Realist ideas and values (e.g. Heartland, or Fred Singer’s SEPP), but they seem small and scattered. I suspect that is because they do not market themselves to a broad membership base the way the enviros do. It is essential to promote such an organization with positive messages: not just that the Alarmists are wrong, but that we must band together to save civilization and yes, even “the planet,” from their destructive and anti-human, anti-ecological (plants including crops need ample CO2!) schemes.
The Alarmists have succeeded in painting skeptics and Realists as a small band of self-interested, greedy, flat-earthers. Well, turnabout is fair play. We can paint the Alarmists as head-in-the-sand Luddites and Marxists who are intent on taking us back to the Stone Age, putting a halt to the progress our children and grandchildren are entitled to expect.
The point is to get strong enough to inoculate world legislatures against the mad virus that has them careening toward a self-inflicted environmental and economic catastrophe. Given how short the time is, that will take some doing. The Alarmists have a big head start. And I have no real idea how to catch up. But I’ll bet there are some here who do.
/Mr Lynn
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/02/lindzens-climate-sensitivty-talk-iccc-june-2-2009/#comment-139791
* * * * *
[TonyB (02:35:48) offered some thoughts about how to counter the “prevailing AGW view” with better marketing. I responded:]
I agree entirely that the Realist (vs. AGW) viewpoint requires much better marketing than it has heretofore received.
And yes,
As for the ability of a Realist organization to distance “fringe groups, politically motivated viewpoints or vested interests,” as you put it, that’s a complex matter.
First, you have to realize that any anti-AGW movement is going to be slandered as ‘fringe’, made up of ‘kooks’, allied with ‘greedy oil and coal interests’, ‘crackpot science’, and so on, and so forth. Yes, it’s vitally important to establish scientific bona fides, but you know how easily those are dismissed by the AGW orthodoxy (’not peer reviewed’, meaning by the correct peers). The objective has to be to gain public credibility, and that’s where the marketing comes in, because as Senator Inhofe said (above), the science is over most people’s heads.
Second, because AGW has become a political issue more than a scientific one, the AGW crusade has be stopped in the halls of Congress and Parliament, and that means some kind of political action. You may be able to avoid identifying with other issues (social questions, foreign affairs, etc.), but there’s one you can’t dodge, and that’s the economy. The ‘remedies’ that the Alarmists propose are all top-down, statist measures, and the way to combat them in the public mind is to emphasize how much they will curtail economic growth and individual freedom.
Notice, BTW, that the Alarmists’ affiliations with extreme leftwing ‘fringe’ groups and with avowedly leftwing and socialist political parties has done nothing to marginalize them or damage their effectiveness. The reason is that, as you point out, they have taken the moral high ground, with rhetoric like “Saving the planet.”
You are absolutely right that we have to recapture the moral high ground. I think the way to do this is not by shouting “Fire!” in the theater, as the Alarmists do, but by shouting “Water! Quick!” The lesson has to be:
What the Alarmists want to do, with or without good intentions, is to stop Civilization and Progress in their tracks. But economic growth, which means cheap and abundant energy, is essential for progress, and contrary to the Alarmists, the CO2 that might produce is good, good for plants, good for the Earth, and good for you. They offer a dead and dying Earth, with everyone cowering in fear; we promise a bright future of development for all people on the planet, a planet of beautiful cities and fields and gardens, fueled by abundant energy.
That’s the form the debate should take, as I see it. . .
/Mr Lynn
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/06/02/lindzens-climate-sensitivty-talk-iccc-june-2-2009/#comment-140161
Jim Cripwell : “I disagree completely. This ought to be a scientific issue, not political, The issue will, in the end, be settled scientifically.”
Agree, but…. this is already a political issue. Like it or not. The science is clear in the sense that there is no theory that supports man made global warming and even less the catastrophic version of it. Still, people believe in it no matter that all predictions of the theory are wrong. The only thing that will make people reconsider is a generation (or two) long cooling period. Then the Manns and the Schmitts are sitting pretty with their pensions and uncountable forests have been harvested for their “bio fuel” and more people will wish that they could afford a Haitian mud pie.
From Rick K “Does Congress know? Does the public know?”
Excellent points Rick. The trick is, how do we persuade Anthony Watts to issue press releases to help publicize the material posted here? 🙂
Haven’t time to read the comments above. But any such organized opposition to the AGW juggernaut should remain focused on the subject. I wouldn’t like to see mission creep turn an important scientific argument into a crusade against open forums. Like this one.
I am all in favor of organizing for truthful representation of data, for complete scientific transparency (i.e., against the cloaking of cherry-picked hokey stick methodology), for inclusion of science from other fields (geology, anthropology, statistical analysis, meteorology, oceanography, etc.) in the peer review of this “climatology” cult, for opening the editorial processes of the IPCC organization, etc. In many ways, this is what I turn to this blog.
The difficulties I see in organizing “the skeptic opposition”. The disparate views representing one voice would be well-described as Pointman’s herding cats. The opposite concern also comes with organization. Selection and rejection of which views to promote. The “skeptic” party line may be as restricting as the CAGW party line. Money and politics become incentives driving organization (e.g., IPCC, climate research, unionization, term limits, PACs…).
Sorry state of science reporting in the popular media does a great disservice to the very scientific method supposedly being touted. The thirst for the next story leads to garbage such as Lovejoy’s 99.9% certainty grabbing headlines rather than ridicule.
I wish I had the answers to these dilemmas. The hope that enough of the decision makers are able to separate the chaff from the wheat. In the meanwhile, the role of the skeptic is to call out the untruths, bias, and other devices used to mislead the folks that spend our money.
I might recount my own experience as “chairman” of the Scottish climate and energy forum (Not the original name – but someone who no one knew turned up at the first meeting – registered the domain name – and then wasn’t heard of again.
But the big problem, was that many skeptics are very “open with their opinions” and it wasn’t easy to get compromise. Unfortunately, this led to the initial aims being so “aggressive” that I personally couldn’t join the organisation. (I have family in government) Eventually we did form the organisation with the aim of lobbying Scottish politicians & media.
But, whilst I had met and lobbied politicians before, this time it turned out to be far harder than I had imagined. Whilst, before I was lobbying as an individual for better policy to create jobs in wind in Scotland. Now, even though I was representing a reasonable group of people, Scottish politicians & civil service were (are?) actively hostile and many would willingly break their own rules to exclude us. So e.g. there is a rule that civil servants will meet with groups about policy. They just outright refused. The media refused to print anything we wrote. E.g. the Scottish government gave MSPs the incorrect figure for the economic case for wind when they passed the climate change act. Only one small local paper and no politicians took any interest. This was a major scandal (and still is) and if it had been any other act, I’m sure heads would have rolled. But in Scotland, there was a conspiracy of silence by press and politicians
So, lobbying was a complete waste of time. The politicians, civil servants & journalists treated us with contempt and short of taking them to court, there was nothing we could do. it was so bad, that my own MSP refused to see me on a legitimate constituency matter when I told her I was a skeptic. If I were black, catholic, etc. she’d been slaughtered by the press.
However, I did learn some things from that process:
1. The first question a politicians or the press asks is the number of members. So, whilst it doesn’t matter to skeptics, you should aim to get as many members as possible.
2. Unless or until we had a visiting dignitary (Salby), physical meetings were unnecessary. The most successful enterprise was a leaflet “Global Warming the Facts” and as I recall, that was done entirely by email (mostly be me – but the help was invaluable)
3. The most useful thing I could do is “write on behalf of skeptics” in response to all the nasty comments made in the press and media.
Despite being undoubted qualified to have a view given my science qualifications and direct experience in the wind industry and having experience of lobbying before, unfortunately, the politicians and press were going out of their way to ignore the Scottish Climate & Energy Forum leaving me banging my head on a brick wall of bigotry. So eventually I gave up trying to talk to the Scottish media or politicians.
But, there was still a need to “speak up for skeptics” after each of the regular attacks. And the role morphed into one of a “skeptic (trade) union”. When skeptics were being personally attacked, I would sit down for a few hours, draw up a letter explaining that skeptics were reasonable people and that it was wrong to make comments that often were libellous. And whilst it didn’t get a lot of coverage, it did seem to change a few minds, tone down the attacks and general help us.
So, I would suggest, that the focus of the organisation should be to protect those individuals who through expressing a skeptic view have found themselves to be discriminated against, particularly in their work. There are many such individuals. Unlike “lobbying” where it is seen to be legitimate (why?) to repress views from those outside the establishment of academia, society in contrast, takes a dim view about libellous comments and hatespeech and other forms of discriminating practice targeted against people intending to repress their right to free speech.
After re-reading Pointman’s article on his blog, I’ve come to think that he is more open to a nakedly politically movement than I may have thought. But even still, in practical terms, for him, being in the UK, that means signing up for Nigel Farage’s UKIP and saying goodbye to any of those who don’t see things that way. (no one else in the UK political arena dares to breathe a skeptical word about the global warming movement)
Here in the US, if there was a single Democrat Party officeholder in the country who didn’t bow down and worship Global Warming every morning, I would believe there was a chance at creating a bipartisan organization. Even one!!! But there isn’t, and so any organization created is going to be instantly labeled by every media outlet as “far right wing”.
So, if we want to be politically active, cut to the chase and send campaign money to Senators Inhofe, Cruz, and Paul, because those men are our only real allies. And accept that we will be saying goodbye to anyone who doesn’t see things that way.
I Would Need To See The Logo First And How It Looked On A Jacket. It Has To Be Cool Looking And Sounding. Also Be Nice To Have A Title To Put Behind My Name…Dr. Anxiety PhD, PhD, PhD, M.Wattsup