Reddit’s Science Forum Bans Climate Change Deniers

[Valin]

Truth Revolt:

"It became clear to me that the contrarians were not capable of providing the science to support their skepticism on climate change."

Jeff Dunetz

12.17.2013

 

Nathan Allen, a moderator for some of the science forums in the community news discussion site Reddit, wrote an op-ed for Monday's Grist Magazine explaining why the science moderators have decided to ban any discussion from people who disagree with the climate change theory.

 

 

After some time interacting with the regular denier posters, it became clear that they could not or would not improve their demeanor. These problematic users were not the common internet trolls looking to have a little fun upsetting people. Such users are practically the norm on Reddit. These people were true believers, blind to the fact that their arguments were hopelessly flawed, the result of cherry-picked data and conspiratorial thinking. They had no idea that the smart-sounding talking points from their preferred climate blog were, even to a casual climate science observer, plainly wrong. They were completely enamored by the emotionally charged and rhetoric-based arguments of pundits on talk radio and Fox News.

 

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Also on Monday, the BBC reported that data from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft suggests there were almost 9,000 cu km of ice at the end of this year's melt season. This is close to 50% more than in the corresponding period in 2012. However you will not be able to read about that on Reddit, nor will one be able to read that the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledges that the Earths temperatures havent gotten warmer in over 15 years. Arctic specific research shows that the top of the world hasn't gotten warmer in 10 years, or that the Antarctic ice cap us growing at near record rates.

 

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