A petition to ban “climate change denial” pages from Facebook has attracted over 3,300 signatures. The author of the petition is arguing that climate change denial must be banned on the social networking site because Facebook rules stipulate that pages must not contain false information. But the so-called ‘deniers’ have called the campaign “totalitarian.”
Climate change advocate and concerned citizen Laurent Cousineau has called on Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to “Stop the Climate Change Denial Facebook Pages!”. Citing the World Health Organisation’s assertion that over 100 million people will die because of climate change within 20 years, Mr Cousineau has insisted that Disinformation should not be allowed on Facebook especially if it is to deny the scientific consensus on climate change.
“We need to take a stand!” he added.
Mr Cousineau has referenced Facebook’s own rules, which states that “Pages must not contain false, misleading, fraudulent, or deceptive claims or content.”
Amongst those signing the petition is Mississippi resident Kenneth Hall, who commented “To deny that the climate is changing is madness, especially in the face of the monstrous storms that are occurring right here in this country. If something is not done and quickly soon it’ll be too late and nothing will stop the roller coaster of destruction. Do not allow climate change deniers to use the Facebook pages for their open lies and denials and blatant doublespeak.”
Helpfully, Mr Cousineau lists a number of pages which he thinks should be removed from Facebook for promoting climate change denial. First and foremost among them is the Friends of Science page, which is compiled by a range of volunteers who are either active or retired from the fields of earth and atmospheric science, engineering and other professions.
The page gives its mission as being: “To educate the public about climate science and through them bring pressure to bear on governments to engage in public debates on the scientific merits of the hypothesis of human induced global warming and the various policies that intend to address the issue”.
Mr Cousineau, however, is adamant: “This is one of the biggest disinformation pages and it has to go!
“In fact according to Facebook page guidelines and perhaps also out of courtesy to future generations, all climate denial pages should be banned!”
But Friends of Science has struck back, telling Breitbart London: “Friends of Science Society members agree that climate changes; we even agree that humans affect climate and we agree that human industrial carbon dioxide/GHG emissions affect warming to some degree.”
They believe that CO2 is just one of many variables that can affect the climate, but that the sun is a more important factor. They also believe that the subject should therefore be open to discussion.
“The world has spent about $1.9 trillion on climate change mitigation up to 2012 – but carbon dioxide rises while temperatures have naturally stagnated – thus indicating the theory of CAGW is faulty. Instead of shutting people up on this topic, we should be discussing the climate science, the policies and the economics of taxing and trading.”
Also on the list of proposed pages to be banned are that of the Heartland Institute, the Heritage Foundation, Climate News, Carbon Dioxide, and Australian Climate Madness, amongst numerous others.
Jim Lakely of The Heartland Institute told Breitbart London “Leftist activists have no respect for the Constitution, great contempt for individual liberty, and an insatiable desire to ban everything that displeases them. It should be shocking to see how itchy the trigger finger of the totalitarian left is, but such tactics are all too common these days. It’s easy to win an argument when you ban all opponents from even speaking.
“I wouldn’t expect Facebook to fall for this stunt, but they’d better be ready for enormous backlash and bad publicity if they even hint of endorsing these thuggish tactics to suppress free speech.”
Justin C, a spokesman for Carbon Dioxide told Breitbart London “The truth hurts.
“We have always acknowledged that when the alarmists are presented with facts that don’t fit their narrative, instead of debating they attempt to shut down and censor all opposing voices. It is the sad reality, and only reinforces the fact we need opposing voices.
“Science is never settled, only a religious cult would make such a claim.”
Follow Donna Rachel Edmunds on Twitter: Follow @Donna_R_E or e-mail to: dedmunds@breitbart.com
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