Fabricated quote used to discredit climate scientist

Source: The Independent

For climate sceptics it was a key piece of evidence showing that the scientists behind global warming could not be trusted. A quotation by one of the world's most eminent climate scientists was supposed to demonstrate the depths to which he and his ilk would stoop to create scare stories exaggerating the threat of global warming.

Sir John Houghton, who played a critical role in establishing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), was roundly condemned after it emerged that he was an apparent advocate of scary propaganda to frighten the public into believing the dangers of global warming.

"Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen," Sir John was supposed to have said in 1994.

The quotation has since become the iconic smoking gun of the climate sceptic community. The words are the very first to appear in the "manual" of climate denialism written by the journalist and arch-sceptic Christopher Booker. They get more than a million hits on Google, and are wheeled out almost every time a climate sceptic has a point to make, the last occasion being in a Sunday newspaper article last weekend written by the social anthropologist and climate sceptic Benny Peiser.

The trouble is, Sir John Houghton has never said what he is quoted as saying. The words do not appear in his own book on global warming, first published in 1994, despite statements to the contrary. In fact, he denies emphatically that he ever said it at any time, either verbally or in writing.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/fabricated-quote-used-to-discredit-climate-scientist-1894552.html

Outright lies are indicative of their desperation to bury their heads deeply in the sand to further their own agendas.

If it ain't broke...

A technique? Sure. Proven however? That I believe, has yet to be seen.

Up to this point, their methodology has been to advertise the minority view within the scientific/research world. That had some traction til recently, and now they simply... lie. :shrug:

so we had to invade"-remember that big lie in July 2003 by W? & we had just gone into Iraq March Equinox 2003? The media was silent, after that I knew they'd pass anything W said & quit watching tv infotainment.

Problem is that when those disasters finally come along, And they will.
It will be too late to do a damned thing about it.

nobody cares until there is a crisis

Weird, not what I was expecting.

as usual. lying liars. greedy, hatefilled earth destroying lying liars.

But, of course, that's beside the point, isn't it?

Just like the tobacco companies did. This is all from the same playbook.