Nobel global warming guru upset about differing views, sues newspaper, wants internet scrubbed
- Launches libel action in Canada, wants internet scrubbed. Shouldn't people question every detail when faced with being forced to pay billions in climate 'reparations' in perpetuity?
- he says "poison" the debate on global warming.
In a case with potentially huge consequences for online publishers, lawyers acting for Andrew Weaver, a climate modeller at the University of Victoria, Canada, have demanded the National Post removes the articles not only from its own websites,
- but also from the numerous blogs and sites where they were reposted.
Weaver says the articles, published at the height of several recent controversies over the reliability of climate science in recent months, contain "grossly irresponsible falsehoods". He said he filed the suit after the newspaper refused to retract the articles.
- Weaver said: "If I sit back and do nothing to clear my name, these libels will stay on the internet forever. They'll poison the factual record, misleading people who are looking for reliable scientific information about global warming.""...
- (Is he concerned about the permanence of known documented errors in the UN Climate report?) ed.
(continuing, Guardian): "The four articles, published from December to February, claimed that Weaver cherrypicked data to support his climate research, and that he tried to blame the "evil fossil fuel" industry for break-ins at his office in 2008 to divert attention from reported mistakes in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, on which he was lead author.
- The lawsuit also highlights several claims in the articles that attempt to question or undermine the scientific consensus on climate change, including
- that annual global mean temperatures have stopped increasing in the last decade and that
- climate models are "falling apart"."...
- (continuing, Guardian): "Such statements, the lawsuit says, would lead readers to conclude that Weaver
"is so strongly motivated by a corrupt interest in receiving government funding that he willfully conceals scientific climate data which refutes global warming in order to keep alarming the public so that it welcomes... funding for climate scientists such as himself."
- Weaver said: "I asked the National Post to do the right thing, to retract a number of recent articles that attributed to me statements I never made, accused me of things I never did, and attacked me for views I never held. To my absolute astonishment, the newspaper refused."
A spokesman for the National Post said: "Beyond saying that we intend to defend the article, we do not comment on such suits."
- Weaver is suing for libel three writers at the newspaper, as well as the newspaper as a whole and several, as-yet unknown, posters on the paper's online comment section. Such comments, typical on articles about global warming, included claims that
Weaver was "as big a hypocrite as he is a fraudster" and a rat leaving a sinking "ship of lies, red-herrings and hysteria". One poster suggested he should be thrown under a bus.
McConchie Law Corporation, acting for Weaver, said that the National Post articles had "gone viral on the internet"
- and were reproduced on dozens of other websites, including prominent climate-sceptic sites Climate Audit and Watts Up With That.
The lawsuit says the newspaper "expressly authorised republication" of the articles by including online links that invited readers to email the story to others, and share it through tools such as Facebook.
McConchie Law said it was seeking an "unprecedented" court order that would require the newspaper to
- help Weaver remove the articles from across the internet.
Media law experts said that such demands were becoming increasingly common in complaints to publishers, but this could be the first time they were tested in court.
- Weaver's libel action follows an official complaint made last month by a leading UK scientist to the Press Complaints Commission over a story published in the Sunday Times.
Simon Lewis, an expert on tropical forests at the University of Leeds, claimed the story published in January was misleading because it gave the impression that the IPCC made a false claim in its 2007 report that reduced rainfall could wipe out up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest. He said he told the newspaper that the IPCC's statement was "poorly written and bizarrely referenced, but basically correct"."
- from UK Guardian, 4/22/10, "Climate Scientist sues newspaper for 'poisoning' global warming debate," by David Adam, via Climate Realists via Tom Nelson
- "George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund operator, says money managers would find ways to manipulate cap-and-trade markets. “The system can be gamed,” Soros, 79, remarked.... “That’s why financial types like me like it -- because there are
- financial opportunities.”
Labels: Global warming guru seeks internet scrubbing of comments
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4 Comments:
Susan, this is great stuff!
I followed your link from your Soros comment via Redstate.
I agree with you on Soros -- he goes beyond America -- and I want to tell you should consider posting your stuff on Redstate. It's excellent. :)
I'm going to create a post via my blog, probably cross-post and include some other ideas, but I will reference you, if that's ok.
I hope it's ok. I hope you read this comment!
You've great insight -- it's exhibited in picking out this article and recognizing its importance.
I hope to hear more from you & I'll be linking you to my blog!
Great work!
By No One, at 10:00 AM
Thanks very much, Veronica. I appreciate your comments and look forward to reading your blog. Do link to anything you wish. I view Soros and the climate movement as our biggest problem right now. It could easily be solved but many people don't want to talk about it.
By susan, at 3:39 PM
"Nobel global warming guru upset about differing views, sues newspaper, wants internet scrubbed "
FAIL.
Read the Statement of Claim. Weaver is suing claiming that the National Post has severely misrepresented his words, positions and actions. Weaver can be completely wrong about Climate Change and The National Post completely correct, but he is still entitled to have his words, actions and positions correctly reported.
By Mark Richard Francis, at 11:11 AM
A person's words and actions shouldn't be misrepresented of course. Unless the article is inaccurate, the plaintiff has further concerns, such as the debate about global warming not be 'poisoned.'
Quoting him, "They'll poison the factual record, misleading people who are looking for reliable scientific information about global warming.""...This seems to state his belief that his own views were reliable scientific information about global warming. From the article, " * The lawsuit also highlights several claims in the articles that attempt to question or undermine the scientific consensus on climate change, including
* that annual global mean temperatures have stopped increasing in the last decade and that
* climate models are "falling apart"."..." This suggests the plaintiff is concerned about public perception of whether temperatures are increasing. The original complaint (to which you refer me) may not suggest this, ie may suggest the plaintiff was only referring to his own words and not the general acceptance of global warming and temperature rising. Phil Jones, Trenberth and others have recently said temperatures are not rising, just a point of interest and not necessarily related to this case. I don't disagree with your point about his words and actions being reported correctly, but unless the newspaper report is inaccurate, he seems concerned as well about the overall perception of global and temperature warming. Perhaps it is unfortunate, but he was part of the UN report that has been used as a basis for demanding billions from US taxpayers in climate reparations, among other things. If Weaver were operating on his own, and had not been connected with information that was used to transform governments and lives, he might not be receiving the attention he is currently experiencing.
By susan, at 2:02 PM
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