Nazis, shoddy science, and the climate contrarian credibility gap

21/02/14
Author: 
Dana Nuccitelli
A German police officers shows a Nazi flag confiscated from the far-right group Besseres Hannover. Contrarian climate scientist and conservative media favorite Roy Spencer posted a rant on his blog against those he calls "global warming Nazis." Photograph: Alexander Koerner/AP

Because the pool of climate experts who dispute that humans are the primary cause of global warming is so small, representing just 2 to 4 percent of climate scientists, climate contrarians often reference the same few contrarian scientists. Two such examples are Roy Spencer and John Christy of the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH), both of whom have testified before US Congress several times, and are often interviewed and quoted in the conservative media.