'The science is settled.'
'There is a consensus.'
'Why are you denying science?'
'If we don't act immediately, it will be too late.'
By now, we've all heard the familiar refrains and recriminations from the climate alarmists. People like Al Gore, Greta Tunberg, and AOC shriek these mantras at us almost every day. Of course, their apocalyptic predictions never come to pass, but that doesn't matter. They just move the goalposts down the road and start berating everyone all over again.
If that behavior sounds familiar, it should. It is what cultists do. When reality doesn't accommodate them, it is reality that is wrong, not them. (If you're really lucky, you can get one of them to tell you how the actual truth doesn't matter, only their 'moral truth.')
Of course, my saying that climate alarmists are a cult isn't exactly breaking news. Many people are waking up to this. But here's the thing about cults: though they desperately (often violently) try to keep all of their sheep in the fold, every once in a while, someone escapes. And when that person escapes -- like Sarah Edmondson from NXIVM or Amy Scobee from Scientology -- the stories they tell are damning.
A number of scientists are now escaping the climate cult and while, thankfully, their stories don't involve anything as horrific as sexual abuse (like in NXIVM or Scientology), their stories are no less damning to climate alarmism.
Recently, famed investigative reporter John Stossel sat down with one of the most prominent escapees of the climate cult: Judith Curry.
Curry has an impressive resume. She has a Ph.D. in Geophysical Science from the University of Chicago. She is the former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has authored more than 100 papers on climatology, and was a member of the National Research Council's Climate Research Committee.
She also was once one of the biggest heroes of the climate cult ... emphasis on was.
Around 2017, Curry began to express skepticism about climate alarmism based on the data she saw and other researchers showed her. And that's when it all came crashing down for her.
Curry explains how it all happened in this video from Stossel.
Scientist @curryja published research that fueled climate change alarmism.
— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) February 22, 2024
“I was...treated like a rock star."
Then she realized some of her research was wrong.
When she admitted it, the corrupt climate change industry attacked her.
Here she exposes how alarmism is REWARDED: pic.twitter.com/YoBBdflPPz
I love how Stossel sets up the interview, showing the absolute worst of the worst, John Oliver, using juvenile bullying tactics to try to silence any scientists who express skepticism. Oliver LITERALLY invites a shouting mob on stage to shut down anyone with an opposing view.
I guess John Oliver isn't big on irony or self-awareness.
But then Curry enters to explain how the entire 'consensus' is false and manufactured. How is it manufactured? One of the oldest reasons in human history: money and fame.
That's another thing about cults. They center around a central god-like figure. And the climate hysterics' god is just good old-fashioned money. With a little power thrown in for good measure.
Curry cites how she was 'adopted' by the environmentalists and treated like a 'rock star' just for writing a research paper that noted an increase in hurricanes. She was feted and flown around the word (probably on private jets) to meet with politicians and affirm the hysteria.
But what set her apart from the likes of (non-scientists) Gore or Thunberg is that when people pointed out to her the flaws in her hurricane research, she investigated the claims and found that she was wrong. There was NOT a significant increase in hurricane activity or severity.
Curry's eyes were truly opened when she saw during 'Climategate' how many researchers were falsifying their data or changing their conclusions to fit the climate alarmist narrative.
Curry then shows how the entire industry -- yes, industry -- of climate science is corrupted.
'The origins go back to the 1980s and the UN Environmental Program. [It was] anti-capitalism. They hated the oil companies and they siezed on the climate change issue as one to move their policies along.'
'The IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] wasn't supposed to focus on any benefits of warming. The IPCC's mandate was to look for dangerous human-caused cliamte change.'
'Then the national funding agencies directed all the funding in the field ... the announcements of opportunities for funding are really tied to assuming that there are dangerous impacts.'
Get how it works? You are only supposed to look for risk, not reward. And if you want funding, you'd better find that risk. And that risk better be big.
Greer and Stossel then talk about how skeptics not only don't get funded, but they can't even get their research published because of 'authorities' claiming that 'debate needs to be shut down,' and activists calling for any skeptics to be fired.
It is not a coincidence that Greer left her faculty position at Georgia Tech at exactly the same time she admitted the flaws in her research and began to express skepticism about climate change narratives.
'If you wanted to advance in your career, like be at a prestigious university and get a big salary, have big laboratory space, get lots of grand funding, be director at an institute, well there was clearly one path to go.'
'I felt the hostility.'
'Nobody will hire you [at other universities] because if you Google Judith Curry, everything that shows up with 'Judith Curry, denier,' 'Judith Curry, serial climate disinformer' ... at that point I started making my plans to transition 100 percent to the private sector.'
The institutions are captured by money and activists. Dissent is not permitted or you will be ostracized and defamed.
And of course, Curry also laughs at the projection of the activists who smear her by saying she is in the private sector 'for the money.' Except that she made more money as a department chair at Georgia Tech when she was a celebrated member of the cult.
'If I was doing this for the money, I would have stayed at Georgia Tech and sucked up my big salary. But that's not who I am. My personal and professional integrity would not allow me to play that game.'
Stossel notes at the end of the interview that Curry does still believe that we should be addressing climate change. But sensibly. And it is certainly not a 'crisis.' Money is not telling her to say that. Data is. And integrity is.
Curry's experience she shared in this interview should be shocking. But sadly, they really didn't come as a surprise to anyone.
I tried to follow the science, but it kept leading me to the money. 🤷 pic.twitter.com/1vtgaMQR7g
— Bailey (@realsnoopbailey) February 23, 2024
Interesting vid about how Judith Curry went from idol to rival because she wanted honesty about climate change. https://t.co/P4mhh4cauI
— Rob Allessandro (@RobAllessandro) February 23, 2024
-Right on point and what a lot of the good climatologists deal with.
— DarkEndMoon (@DarkEndMoon1) February 22, 2024
-Doesn't matter if you try to prove or disprove.
-They have been taught by colleges to research for an objective.
-Not research objectively. https://t.co/Cz7Hd7oPrc
“Researchers aren’t stupid, they know what they need to say to get funding.”
— Pilgrim😎 (@villagerssn) February 22, 2024
"Exactly"
Interesting interview. https://t.co/oVOiqnPqDl
Stossel noted at the end of this video that he plans to publish a much longer interview with Curry in a few weeks.
I will look forward to that because I am sure these seven minutes and 24 seconds only begin to scratch the surface of the corruption.
But it is a great sign of progress that Curry is speaking out. The first ones through the gate always get bloodied, as Curry has. The same thing happened to the first people to speak out against 'gender ideology.' And look where that is now. Everyone is pointing out the insanity of trying to change young boys into young girls and vice versa.
Similarly with climate change, the more scientists who follow Curry's lead and speak out, the sooner the grift can end and more serious discussions can begin.
