Twenty so-called scientists wrote a letter to the
Obama administration demanding global warming dissenters face RICO
charges. Here is that letter along with
the signatories.
September
1, 2015
Dear President Obama, Attorney
General Lynch, and OSTP Director Holdren,
As you know, an overwhelming
majority of climate scientists are convinced about the potentially serious
adverse effects of human-induced climate change on human health, agriculture,
and biodiversity. We applaud your efforts to regulate emissions and the other
steps you are taking. Nonetheless, as climate scientists we are exceedingly
concerned that America’s response to climate change – indeed, the world’s
response to climate change – is insufficient. The risks posed by climate
change, including increasing extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and
increasing ocean acidity – and potential strategies for addressing them – are
detailed in the Third National Climate Assessment (2014), Climate Change
Impacts in the United States. The stability of the Earth’s climate over the
past ten thousand years contributed to the growth of agriculture and therefore,
a thriving human civilization. We are now at high risk of seriously
destabilizing the Earth’s climate and irreparably harming people around the
world, especially the world’s poorest people.
We appreciate that you are
making aggressive and imaginative use of the limited tools available to you in
the face of a recalcitrant Congress. One additional tool – recently proposed by
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse – is a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act) investigation of corporations and other organizations that
have knowingly deceived the American people about the risks of climate change,
as a means to forestall America’s response to climate change. The actions of
these organizations have been extensively documented in peerreviewed academic
research (Brulle, 2013) and in recent books including: Doubt is their Product
(Michaels, 2008), Climate Cover-Up (Hoggan & Littlemore, 2009), Merchants
of Doubt (Oreskes & Conway, 2010), The Climate War (Pooley, 2010), and in
The Climate Deception Dossiers (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2015). We
strongly endorse Senator Whitehouse’s call for a RICO investigation.
The methods of these
organizations are quite similar to those used earlier by the tobacco industry.
A RICO investigation (1999 to 2006) played an important role in stopping the
tobacco industry from continuing to deceive the American people about the
dangers of smoking. If corporations in the fossil fuel industry and their
supporters are guilty of the misdeeds that have been documented in books and
journal articles, it is imperative that these misdeeds be stopped as soon as
possible so that America and the world can get on with the critically important
business of finding effective ways to restabilize the Earth’s climate, before
even more lasting damage is done.
Sincerely,
Jagadish Shukla, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA
Edward Maibach, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA
Paul Dirmeyer, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA
Barry Klinger, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA
Paul Schopf, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA
David Straus, George Mason
University, Fairfax, VA
Edward Sarachik, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA
Michael Wallace, University of
Washington, Seattle, WA
Alan Robock, Rutgers
University, New Brunswick, NJ
Eugenia Kalnay, University of
Maryland, College Park, MD
William Lau, University of
Maryland, College Park, MD
Kevin Trenberth, National
Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO
T.N. Krishnamurti, Florida
State University, Tallahassee, FL
Vasu Misra, Florida State
University, Tallahassee, FL
Ben Kirtman, University of
Miami, Miami, FL
Robert Dickinson, University of
Texas, Austin, TX
Michela Biasutti, Earth
Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY
Mark Cane, Columbia University,
New York, NY
Lisa Goddard, Earth Institute,
Columbia University, New York, NY
Alan Betts, Atmospheric
Research, Pittsford, VT
Source:
