Use of Fear to Silence Climate Skeptics Is An Assault On Reason

Guest opinion: Dr. Tim Ball

Fear is the most powerful enemy of reason. Both fear and reasoning are essential to human survival, but the relationship between them is unbalanced. Reason may sometimes dissipate fear, but fear frequently shuts down reason. As Edmund Burke wrote in England 20 years before the American Revolution,” no passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning past fear.”

Fear is aided and abetted by exaggeration, distortion, and falsehoods. Sadly, these exploitations litter history as people sought to control others and push a political or religious agenda. There appears to be a difference today as Farhad Manjoo identified in his book “True Enough: Learning to live in a Post-Fact Society”:

Facts no longer matter. We simply decide how we want to see the world and then go out and find experts and evidence to back our beliefs.

If that doesn’t work, you manufacture the material and hire spin doctors to spread the lies and misinformation more effectively. The truth doesn’t need spin doctors.

Most people are afraid of lawyers and the law. There is the apocryphal story of a lawyer (solicitor) in England who had a standard letter that said,

“Sir: This matter has come to our attention, and if you do not deal with it immediately we will do things that will astonish you.”

Many think a letter from a lawyer is a legal document, it isn’t; it is a letter from a lawyer. Apart from the potential legal action that might follow, the recipient knows it is going to cost money even if only to hire a lawyer. The increasing use of the law to intimidate people is a frightening trend that is a perversion of the laws purpose to protect the citizens. Now that trend extends to those who are doing their job. It is the job of a scientist to challenge and question. As Thomas Huxley wrote,

The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.”

Even the threat by US Attorney General (AG) Loretta Lynch that the FBI are going to examine the role of climate skeptics for charges under the RICO is deeply disturbing. It is the practice of leaders who hold a singular political view from either extreme to isolate and threaten. Totalitarianism occurs on the left and the right.

While Lynch was threatening skeptics, President Obama held a press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at which they announced total agreement on the need to fight climate change. Both present themselves as leaders who only have the people and the planet at heart, but consider the actions of what Trudeau’s father Pierre did when his belief in centralized government was challenged.

French-speaking people in Quebec with distinct cultural identity wanted to form a nation-state.

After the First World War the principle of ‘the right to national self-determination’ were commonly used by international lawyers, national governments and their challengers. The demand that people should govern themselves became identified with the demand that nations should determine their own destiny.

“When the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) sought separation of Quebec from Canada, Pierre Trudeau used the murder of Deputy Premier and Minister of Labour of the province of Quebec Pierre Laporte to act.”

This does not change the point of the story. It was a gross over-reaction to take away all citizens rights and use the Canadian Army against Canadian citizens.

For comparison, imagine if a State politician was murdered by a person and Obama used that as an excuse to take complete control of the US and use the Army to control citizens. There is a reason for the second amendment. As Thomas Jefferson said,

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

When challenged about his draconian actions, this academic lawyer who suddenly became a tyrant said in a TV interview,

Trudeau: Yes, well, there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don’t like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed, but it is more important to keep law and order in a society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who we don’t like the looks of.

Reporter; At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?

Trudeau; Well, just watch me.

At what point would the White House decide that the threat of climate change and the subversion of “big oil” and their skeptical lackeys justify suspending the Constitution? After the 911 attack

President Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD 51). This, for the sixth time, extended for one year the emergency proclaimed on September 14, 2001. It empowered the President to personally ensure “continuity of government” in the event of any “catastrophic emergency.”

To my knowledge that is still in place and provides a justification for those who seek one. The phrases used are easily adapted to the climate issue, especially when they are given legitimacy by the consideration of the Attorney General.

Misrepresentation of information to make a political statement or achieve financial gain is central to the AG Lynch’s claim. The White House web page talks about “greenhouse gas pollution” and “carbon pollution.” They incorrectly use carbon, a solid, when they mean carbon dioxide, a gas. They incorrectly label CO2 a pollutant when it is essential to plant life and thereby all life. They threaten with the fear that

“we need to avert an additional 2-degree temperature increase to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.”

When a story is spun, it is essential to capitalize headlines, which is why I repeat them here in that format. Everybody knows because of the Internet practice that capitals are the equivalent of shouting. They claim “THE WEATHER IS GETTING MORE EXTREME,” but provide no evidence. The reason they don’t is because it isn’t true. Instead, they follow the headline with comments about warmer temperatures across the US. Then they do what was done in the 1990s after a sequence of hurricanes ending with Andrew. Stories claimed that hurricanes were increasing in numbers and intensity. This was not correct, and investigation showed the actual increase was the cost of repairs, which was due to inflation and corruption as the cost of building materials sky-rocketed. The WH follows the temperature data with a section titled,”EXTREME WEATHER COMES AT A COST,” which again conflates inflated costs with increasing number and severity of events.

The next section compounds the falsehoods with a headline that says, “CARBON POLLUTION IS THE BIGGEST DRIVER OF CLIMATE CHANGE.” It is followed by a subheading that infers a link without providing evidence. “Global temperatures and carbon dioxide levels are on the rise” is classic sleight of hand like those practiced by the IPCC between the certainty of the Science Report and the Summary for Policymakers (SPM). If challenged, they can say that they acknowledged the reality, but the deception is the method.

Saki, the pen name of a British social commentator cynically observed,

“A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanations.”

In the case of the President’s web page it is more than a “little inaccuracy”, but the need to instill fear in the public is necessary to justify the agenda. Is this a case where fear of failing to instill fear led to abandoning reason? The answer is obvious.

The person who wrote the opening quotation of this article also wrote the following,

The truth shall rise again. I wasn’t the only person who heard that promise, nor was I the only one for whom that hope still rings loud and true.

But before such a hope can be realized, we need to understand the implications of fears new prominence in our democracy. In the following chapter, I will explore why, in an atmosphere of constant fear, the public is more likely to discard reason and turn to leaders who demonstrate dogmatic faith in ideological viewpoints. These new demagogues don’t actually offer greater security from danger, but they’re simplistic and frequently vitriolic beliefs and statements can provide comfort to a fearful society. Unfortunately, the rise of these leaders serves only to exacerbate the decline of reasoning and further jeopardize our democracy.

The quotes are from the master of fear AL GORE in his 2007 book “The Assault on Reason.” The truth is few exploited the false fear of global warming like Gore, and few made more money.

I presume Ms. Lynch is going to apply the same reasoning of exploitation of fear and false information to Gore and the White House. I presume Ms. Lynch will apply the law to all skeptics throughout the world including the White House. If not it is another example what Obama claims to despise, American bullying.

The actions are among the first steps toward totalitarianism defined as

“any system of political ideas that is both thoroughly dictatorial and utopian.”

The White House web page is pure propaganda deliberately designed to strike fear so they can come to the rescue of people and the planet by declaring a state of emergency. This appears to coordinate with the AG giving legal weight to the political agenda by identifying the method and the enemy. It is those dastardly ‘deniers’ funded by the fossil fuel industry who dare to perform their legitimate task as scientific skeptics. I am still waiting for my cheque. Meanwhile the White House confirms that exploitation of fear does suspend reason, just as Gore said.

Update: 3/14/16 The section on…

“When the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) sought separation of Quebec from Canada, Pierre Trudeau used the murder of Deputy Premier and Minister of Labour of the province of Quebec Pierre Laporte to act.”

…has been updated to reflect history more accurately.