Australian Threats, Yet Again

I am reluctant to wade back into the issue of death threats against Australian climate scientists, because these are real people we're talking about, and who am I do judge what they find threatening or not, and in what way? As I've said before, threats are in the eye of the threatened.

Nor do I know the full context in which email are received and what has happened beforehand to the recipient, his or her department, or in Australia.

And I find people using it as points for their cause, and the taunting, to be puerile -- and it further encourages those who send abuse and threats.

But, one last time: this commenter asked, where is the evidence of the threats?

One was captured on video.

Q.E.D.

If you still need more proof, there are the email seen by Australian journalist Graham Readfern, which I excerpted here. These are outside the scope of the ANU FOI request, but no less troubling. It's convenient, but dishonest, for deniers to pretend these don't exist just because they're outside the FOI.

As part of the FOI, there is Document 5, which contains this:

Given that kind of death threat, spoken out loud, it's no wonder that anyone who received a hostile email (such as Docs 2 (especially), 7, and 8) would consider it threatening and look for reassurances of their safety.

You and I might be used to the rude and obscene rhetoric that now routinely appears on blogs and Web forums, but that doesn't mean everyone is, especially scientists suddenly caught in an angry national debate. If they feel threatened and request protection, who are any of us to question their motives or that of a department chair who moved them to safety?

Debating those circumstances from half a world away is not fair or objective.

Nor is it worthwhile to repeatedly respond to juveniles and bullies who do nothing but taunt and mock others, pollute the debate over important issues as a way of getting attention and wealth, and encourage the very extremism they then deny. They are, literally, poisoning and sickening our world, as will be the anonymous (hence cowardly) commenters who will now no doubt flock here to post their insults.

Now I'm going to go take a shower.