The liberal media and an overwhelming majority of scientists would have us believe that there is no real debate about climate change. To that I say: I didn’t realize that we were living under a scienceocracy? Why do they get to be considered experts while the rest of us are treated as anything less?

Know-it-all scientists and their followers all share an extreme, elitist, pro-science, pro-reason bias, which clouds their judgment and threatens the very fabric of our democracy. It marginalizes those of us who challenge the scientific status quo – the data dogma, or the Big Brain of Big Brother.

What happens when we shed our pro-science bias and start respecting creativity, flair, hunches and guts as much as knowledge, expertise, data and brains? We may be forced to admit that global warming doesn’t actually exist.

Perhaps the greatest doubter of climate change is Senator and Environment and Public Works Committee chair Jim Inhofe, who makes his case not with data or evidence but with conviction, true grit and Holocaust analogies. Inhofe is absolutely sure that climate change is not just a hoax, but “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people”, as he calls it. He also wrote a book titled The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. Inhofe sees a lot of similarities between those who worry about the threat posed by climate change and those who worry about the threat posed by Jewish people:

What this country does not need is another Gestapo bureaucracy like the EPA ... It kind of reminds me ... I could use the Third Reich, the Big Lie. You say something over and over and over and over again, and people will believe it, and that’s their strategy.

Inhofe also sews doubt about climate change through creativity, imagination, and excellent use of props. The senator made headlines in February when he addressed the Senate and said: “In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record … you know what this is?” He then pulled out a snowball: “It’s a snowball. And that’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out.” He added: “So here, Mr President, catch this,” before tossing the piece of evidence on the floor.

I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight the extreme minority of scientists who refute the conventional wisdom of their colleagues. What makes these skeptical renegade scientists so valuable is that they are driven by ulterior motives – mostly greed – and not a pro-science agenda. Wei-Hock Soon is a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who has accepted over $1.2m from the fossil fuel industry over the last ten years, which he failed to disclose in at least 11 papers. Another skeptic is Patrick J Michaels, the director of the Center for the Study of Science at the Cato Institute, a right-wing, free-market think tank, which was cofounded by Charles Koch and whose corporate donors have included ExxonMobil, General Motors and the American Petroleum Institute. Dr Michaels is so passionate and committed to his work, he has a habit of deleting or distorting data. When asked if his research was supported by the petroleum industries, he responded “not largely”. He then estimated, “I don’t know. 40%.”

Some of the best skeptical scientists have the freedom to be so precisely because they are not climate scientists and are unfettered by familiarity with the subject. Among the 16 scientists who signed a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled No Need to Panic About Global Warming, only four had published peer-reviewed research related to climate change. But, again, how can we call ourselves a democracy if we don’t value the opinions of retired airplane designers like Burt Rutan and retired astronaut-turned-politicians like Harrison Schmitt?

We must keep the debate open and listen to the voices of scientists and non-scientists alike. If not us, and not Fox News or the Wall Street Journal or the Koch Brothers or the Republican Party, then who? And if not now, then when? When hell freezes over? Though that could happen pretty soon, if last winter’s temperatures are any indication.

