DOE drops homophobe climate-changer denier

[IndianaGreen]

Monday, May 17, 2010

DOE drops homophobe climate-changer denier

Posted by John Aravosis (DC) at 5/17/2010 08:35:00 PM

We had reported earlier today that a homophobic climate-change denialist had been appointed to an elite panel by the Department of Energy to work on the oil spill. He's now been let go.

From press secretary Stephanie Mueller at the Department of Energy:

"Dr. Chu has spoken with dozens of scientists and engineers as part of his work to help find solutions to stop the oil spill. Some of Professor Katz's controversial writings have become a distraction from the critical work of addressing the oil spill. Professor Katz will no longer be involved in the Department's efforts."
(Hat tip to Aaron McQuade of OutQ News for breaking this story.)

Over 2,300 people signed our open letter to the President. All of you made this happen. Thank you.

http://gay.americablog.com/2010/05/doe-drops-homophobe-climate-changer.html

Earlier thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=299817&mesg_id=299817

On edit, here is the petition that was sent to President Obama:

The Department of Energy has just appointed Jonathan I. Katz, an avowed "proud homophobe" to an elite scientific panel that is assisting British Petroleum with the oil spill disaster in the Gulf.

As reported in AmericaBlog, Katz has used his position as a leading scientist to publicly promote hateful views including that gay men (whom he refers to as "sodomites") are responsible for the deaths of "innocent victims" of AIDS (which suggests that gay men who die from AIDS are deserving victims).

Join CREDO and AmericaBlog in asking Pres. Obama to fire Jonathan I. Katz.

In his essay "In Defense of Homophobia," Katz writes of AIDS victims: "people died so the sodomites could feel good about themselves" and "I am a homophobe, and proud." He also compares being gay to being a member in the Ku Klux Klan.

President Obama's Department of Energy has created a panel of five top scientists to help resolve the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Jonathan I. Katz is not representative of the best minds in America and should be replaced immediately.

http://www.change.org/petitions/view/urge_pres_obama_to_fire_homophobe_jonathan_i_katz

[msongs]

1. hooray Obama has halted DADT firings at last.....oh..never mind nt

[IndianaGreen]

3. Jason Linkins picked up the story earlier today

Jonathan Katz: Member Of Science Team Tasked With Gulf Solution Is A Homophobe, Climate Change Denialist

Wow. So, remember earlier when I made note of the team of scientists that has been put together to solve Oil Crisis 2010: Panic In The Gulf Of Mexico?

Well, my tidy little hack Hollywood storyline is getting a major rewrite, courtesy of John Aravosis of AmericaBlog. Jonathan Katz, the Washingon University physicist billed in this TPM piece as the "What Am I Doing Here Guy" on the team, is a virulent homophobe and a climate change denialist.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/jonathan-katz-member-of-s_n_579206.html

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

2. That still doesn't negate the fact that Obama is himself a homophobe according to DU.

Whatever!

[ruggerson]

4. what's amusing about this is how Obama took it seriously

whereas most of GD-P ran roughshod over Indiana Green.

She looks brilliant - everyone here looks incredibly short sighted (including myself - I thought they should have let him participate and put him on a team headed by a gay person).

[depakid]

17. +1

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

22. I'm often dismayed by the fact that many on this forum react quickly, emotionally,

without putting into more thought about why these decisions are being made in the first place. There's such a knee-jerk reaction for everything this administration does--and it comes from BOTH sides of the political spectrum. That right there tells me that perhaps we're all wrong and perhaps--just perhaps--the administration knows what it's doing. If it is proved wrong, well then we are responsible for taking it to task. But the knee-jerk reactions to every little thing is what's so annoying. On BOTH sides of the issue! BOTH sides!!!

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[VMI Dem]

23. I know. Its like calling a guy a racist just because he opposes interracial marriage.

Especially if its because of his religion Thats reverse discrimination.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. It sounds like he was set up for failure

Katz was put in a high profile position where he would have to open his mouth.

Brilliant.

[IndianaGreen]

21. Chu is the one that picked Katz for his team. Chu's fault for not knowing Katz was climate change

denier. Katz also has reactionary views about disabled people.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Recommended. nt

[IndianaGreen]

8. Katz on the learning disabled and on climate change

Obama Appoints Jonathan Katz, Homophobe Apologist and Critic of Learning Disabled Education to "Oil Spill Dream Team"

May 14, 2010, 10:51PM

Katz on the learning disabled:

``Learning disabilities'' are another example of denying reality, and a growing problem at American universities. Some children are brighter than others, and learn faster. Pre-college education is a universal right in America, and it is common sense to give the slower children extra help. But some ambitious parents of slow children are not satisfied with this. They wish to pretend their children can do everything brighter children can do. When their children get to college they demand to be excused from doing anything they do badly, and when this is not possible they demand softer standards and relaxed rules. With the help of cooperative psychologists who certify these supposed ``disabilities'' and a misinterpretation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, these students demand privileges such as double time on examinations. Grades earned this way are lies, but these lies maintain the fiction that the slow students are not really slow at all.

and Katz said in relation to a Paul Krugman article in the NYT:

....On the other hand, there is no evidence that warming will lead to droughts, more severe heat waves (warming occurs almost entirely when and where the weather is cold, for very good physics reasons), more severe storms, or any other bad effects....We can be sure of only two things: that a warmer climate will lengthen growing seasons in temperate and sub-arctic regions, and that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes plants grow faster. These are surely good for humanity. The rest is only guesswork, propelled by contagious hysteria of which this column is a prime example

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/n/o/noblecommentdecider/2010/05/obama-appoints-jonathan-katz-h.php?ref=mp

[rasputin1952]

9. Great "victory"...

what if he was the only one w/a viable plan to stop the oil leak?


If he was let go because he wasn't suited for the position, I'd say fine...if it turns out that his insane ramblings on something other than his scientific expertise keep the leak from being plugged...this was the epitome of a hollow "victory".

[IndianaGreen]

10. I would question the credentials of a scientist that denies climate change evidence

Letter to the editor | Jonathan Katz

Posted October 28, 2009 at 12:00 am

Updated October 28, 2009 at 1:35 pm

There is no evidence that global warming will lead to increasing droughts or tropical storms (which make a lot of rain, the opposite of a drought). The climate has been steadily warming since the end of the Little Ice Age about 300 years ago. Some of this has been natural and some of it anthropogenic. There has been no evidence for an increase in either droughts or storms.

Sea level is rising at the rate of about 3.5 millimeters per year. At that rate, a rise of four meters would take over 1,000 years. We rebuild our cities and infrastructure continuously, as they wear out or become obsolete, roughly every 50 years. Low-lying coastal cities will move inland, but the effect of rising seas will be only a small part of this natural process. There won’t be any climate refugees.

The world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases is China, not the U.S. Chinese emissions are growing rapidly, while those of the U.S. are nearly static. Are the Chinese supposed to remain poor peasants forever?

Why does she think she has the moral right to deny people in developing countries a fraction of the comforts we in America expect?

People won’t freeze in the dark for the sake of a scientific theory, even a correct scientific theory. It is inevitable that greenhouse gases will continue to rise until they are far above present levels.

Humanity will adapt. We may even benefit from longer growing seasons and milder winters (for good physics reasons, summers and the tropics are no hotter than they were 100 years ago and won’t

http://www.studlife.com/forum/2009/10/28/letter-to-the-editor-jonathan-katz/

[phleshdef]

12. Why? Plenty of history's greatest scientific minds were dead wrong on big things.

Science is pretty broad as well. Not defending the bigotry, but thats an inaccurate way to judge his ability to have contributed useful ideas to the oil spill cleanup.

[IndianaGreen]

13. The only contribution Katz would have made is to advocate using a nuke

to seal the well.

[rasputin1952]

15. How do you know that?

Is it what he suggested?

[IndianaGreen]

16. It is part of his background, the nukes part

That's the one thing that caught my eye about the team put together by Dr. Chu. He had people from Sandia National Lab, which is involved in modernizing nuclear warheads.

On edit:

This story has perked my interest in the work being done by the Jason Group, from which some of the scientist came from:

JASON Defense Advisory Panel Reports

JASON is an independent scientific advisory group that provides consulting services to the U.S. government on matters of defense science and technology. It was established in 1960.

JASON typically performs most of its work during an annual summer study, and has conducted studies under contract to the Department of Defense (frequently DARPA and the U.S. Navy), the Department of Energy, the U.S. Intelligence Community, and the FBI. Approximately half of the resulting JASON reports are unclassified.

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/

Nothing like having a lot of Doctor Strangeloves running around finding ways to help our military-industrial complex.

[rasputin1952]

18. Nuke warheads are pretty complex mechanisms...

there might have been something there that might pertain to solving the problem.

Other things might be metallurgy, hydraulics, physics, and a host of other items.

I don't know if this guy had the expertise to plug the pipe...if not, he was just in the way; but if he does have answers, then dumping him for a point that has nothing to do with the problem, was a grave error.

I don't want to sound blunt, but if any one has an answer to rectify this situation, and his/her views are abhorrent on another issue(s); the alternative is for millions more barrels of oil being forced into the Gulf...just my opinion, but that is a serious disaster. If Kim Il Sung had an answer, I'd welcome it...I don't have to like the guy...and it's not going to change my personal opinion of they guy, he'd still be loathsome...:hi:

[rasputin1952]

14. I would too...

but if he has the answer to this particular problem, let him finish it first...take on the peripherals later.

A Geologist may not agree with some things in Astrophysics, it's not his expertise, so his views on anything other than his expertise can be suspect. An archeologist would be of little help in explaining String Theory.

But if I need a scientist w/an expertise, I expect him/her to use that expertise to remedy a problem. The rest is immaterial. If he brought up his archaic views on gays while supposed to working on the problem, I'd tell him to get back to work he was hired to do.

I don't have to like the guy...but I expect him to do his job.

edit: typo

[Cleobulus]

19. The guy is an astrophysicist, and even he said he wouldn't be much help...

so faux outrage #11 defending homophobes is now debunked! :eyes:

[rasputin1952]

20. Sounds good to me...

he could not help, so he was sent away.

I have no problem at all taking on his vacuous views on the lack of their merit.

[Union Yes]

11. This gay guy approves of this message! A big K&R..

Thank you Pres Obama from a gay vet.


:patriot: