Australia Launches “Respect the Science” Campaign

On June 4 an Australian newspaper printed a front-page story about climate scientists who had received death threats. Immediately, the newspaper faced criticism for the timing of the story, which was published ahead of what will surely be a contentious national debate over a national carbon tax.

Whenever climate science becomes a headline, emotions start running high. Now top scientists in Australia are calling for the public to respect scientific findings because the erosion of trust in science is trickling into other fields. Hundreds of Australia’s top climate change scientists have converged on the nation’s capital Canberra to defend their work and speak out about personal death threats they have received.

Anna-Maria Arabia is the head of Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies (FASTS), a group representing the interests of 68,000 scientists in Australia.

She is coordinating the “Respect the Science” campaign to draw attention to the threats some climate scientists have been receiving in the last six months, as the debate over the carbon tax in Australia has become more heated.

Arabia, who has a background in science and politics but is not a scientist herself says that the climate change debate has gotten out of hand.

She says, “We really need to take some time and a deep breath and get back to the important issues here. And that’s the importance of robust, scientific work being undertaken in Australia through the peer-review process.”

It’s not often that scientists go public with concerns like these but some climate scientists have had their lives and their families threatened, prompting several moves to more secure buildings and the removal of private information from public websites.

In a follow-up editorial the Canberra Times shared some of its reporting, after being accused of cherry-picking high-profile climate scientists who have received threats.

Rosslyn Beeby, the reporter who wrote the initial story, says the paper interviewed over 30 scientists in all states and territories to see if the threats were limited to those scientists who appeared regularly in the media. She says the threats were spread evenly, including those with little public exposure.

She says the two most shocking cases were both threats to young female climate scientists. One appeared at a talk at a public library to discuss climate change. Her directive there was clear — talk about small things people can do to cut their carbon footprint, talk about climate books available at the library from a provided list, leave time for questions, and mingle afterwards. But when she left the talk someone had smeared her windshield with excrement and “climate turd” was written on the hood of her car.

The other young scientist was asked by a small, regional newspaper to pose with her young children in a photo promoting a community an upcoming tree-planting event. In the caption, she was briefly quoted as saying planting trees could help mitigate climate change. Two days after the article appeared, she received emails containing threats of sexual assault and violence against her children.

Universities have been forced to respond by increasing their security measures, which include locking buildings, installing keypad office entries and escorting all guests.

Dr. James Hansen is perhaps the most famous climate scientist in the U.S. and is no stranger to threats. He is the man who brought the corrupt practice of scientific censorship to light under the Bush administration, especially as it pertained to NASA political appointees in the public affairs office.

When he traveled to Houston in December 2009, organizers of the talk he was giving insisted he receive a police escort. Sure, Dr. Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been an outspoken scientist. But he wouldn’t call himself an activist, though he’s been accused of much worse.

He’s just been following the scientific evidence for more than 30 years. As director of GISS since 1981 he was the first person to study global climate change. He testified before Congress in 1988 and has been publicly attacked for his scientific views on numerous occasions ever since.

And, he’s not alone, Plenty of other climate scientists have come under fire from angry people who think that scientists are somehow part of a vast conspiracy and are personally gaining from their findings.

So Australian scientists are just asking for a little civility at a time when anyone can drop an anonymous e-mail or online comment. And they are asking for people to respect the science.