Dr. Roy Spencer is, with Dr. John Christy, in charge of the NASA satellites that measure the atmosphere’s temperature (though they rely on others to
catch their many mistakes.) So one could be excused for assuming that he would be a level-headed scientist who should be taken seriously when it comes to climate change. Last year, though, when he wrote that it was “
time to push back against the global warming Nazis,” it became crystal clear that he isn’t the sort of wise and dispassionate thinker that many assume scientists to be.
Now he’s taken it even further, with a post about the Paris climate talks that is unabashedly offensive, titled “
Paris Pow Wow Heap Good.” It’s overtly racist, and the author knows it. He prefaces the article with a mention that “Hollywood seldom uses such racial stereotypes anymore…unless they are of White Southerners.”
For some reason, Dr. Spencer thought it was appropriate to compare the climate summit to a Native American tribal meeting in order to make the point that the Paris Agreement will have as much impact on climate as a rain dance. He uses the classic racism from 1950s Spaghetti Westerns, treating the hundreds of individual indigenous cultures as one homogeneous group of uncivilized simpletons, resorting to the cliches of wampum and fire water and writing dialogue in the derogatory grammar of “we smoke-um peace pipe."
Dr. Spencer makes an attempt in a note following his racism to defend it by saying the real racism is that “Paris-supported energy policies pushed by mostly white-skinned rich westerners would kill millions of mostly dark-skinned poor people by making the energy they desperately need to be inaccessible.”
We have news for you, Dr. Spencer. First off, there are about as many good reasons Hollywood doesn’t use "such racial stereotypes anymore” as there are other ways you could’ve made this point. And the point itself is misplaced, as renewable energy isn’t killing millions of people; that’s fossil fuels you’re thinking of. They're responsible for
more deaths than wars, murders, and traffic accidents combined.
While normally this point be the place for a sarcastic quip or play on words based on the content of the post, instead we’ll do what Spencer should have done: show some restraint.
---—
Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories: