By Tom Bethell
The American Spectator
1.14.10
Two weeks ago I wrote an article here about global warming and the advocates — call them warmists — who tamper with Wikipedia to reflect their own biases. One warmist named William Connolley, a green ideologue in Britain, had rewritten 5,428 climate articles. His goal was to bring the articles into line with Green Party dogma.
A number of people responded, some taking the position that Wikipedia is a waste of time so why bother with it? But that is not satisfactory. Here is a better response, from Howard Hayden, a friend of mine. He puts out The Energy Advocate, a newsletter that raises many doubts about global warming and related energy issues. “Wiki is a great source of non-controversial information,” he told me. “It’s a shame it has been hijacked by true believers.”
I agree. I find Wikipedia useful and I do use it. But I avoid it where science and controversy interact — global warming, biodiversity, intelligent design, and a few other issues. There, Wiki cannot be relied upon. Political activists have enough time on their hands to make changes that suit their tastes.
I contacted Michael Fumento, a science writer who often endorses non-consensus positions. (He has done good work lately in drawing attention to the scare tactics of the “flu-pandemic” promoters; and, earlier, in questioning “AIDS” in Africa. It can be diagnosed there without an HIV test.) Fumento wrote:
The Wiki thing is highly problematic and Wikipedia has expressly been a thorn in my side. Problem is that despite what you hear, wikis are NOT self-correcting. They’re last-person “correcting.”…
…As to those with time on their hands, the warmist activists often work for a website called RealClimate.org. Could they disclose the source of their funding? I keep hearing rumors that George Soros is among them. Global warming skeptics are likely to find themselves accused of being in the pay of oil companies. Could we get a clearer picture of who is paying the warmists? Come to think of it, lots of government grants no doubt go in their direction. Lately the Wikipedia entries on “global warming” and “climate change” have been “locked,” which I guess means that the “warmist” position has been locked in, too…
… What is so striking about the old appeal to “science” by the socialists and those who appeal to it today is that both have identical goals. In proclaiming ours to be an era of man-made environmental degradation and ruin, the warmists make us suspicious even without having to look at the science. We see that they aim to put us right back where the “scientific socialists” wanted: Under government control.
The nice thing about calling yourself green is that you can henceforth consider yourself morally superior to the middle class — to the rest of us. You want to get us out of our cars and into mass transit, to use only the electricity that wind turbines and photo-voltaics can produce, and to pay higher taxes because you know how to spend the money better than we do…
The complete article is at The American Spectator.
