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I sent an e-mail to Fritz Vahrenholt to ask his opinion on the Lennart Bengtsson mobbing scandal. Professor Vahrenholt is one of the fathers of the German environmental movement and co-author of the best-selling skeptic climate science book “Die kalte Sonne“.



Climate science critic Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt says doubt on climate science is gaining. Photo credit: Die kalte Sonne.

My questions to Professor Vahrenholt:

Also having expressed skepticism on climate science and having come under fire for doing so, do you think there is an atmosphere of intimidation that acts to keep people from expressing their doubts on climate science? Do you feel this is also the case in Germany? Do you think the strategy of marginalizing and silencing critics has been a successful one for the warmist side? Or do you think it is failing and is only hurting them?

Professor Vahrenholt’s responded:

It would be a wonder in a country where climate alarmism sets the tone of the energy-political debate like in no other country things would be otherwise. I still can remember very well when the Academy of Technical Sciences prepared a report on the possibilities to adapt to climate change three years ago. At the time I was one of the three directors of the Working Group. I attempted to add to the report the uncertainties of the climate models, the natural influences on climate development, the decoupling between CO2 rise and temperature development over the last 15 years. Three scientists threatened to quit unless I ceded the leadership of the WG. But I resisted the pressure to do so. The three scientists (which included the vice president of the German Weather Service) resigned. Or just think back to the unspeakable report by the Federal Environment Minister in which scientists and journalists who held skeptical views were branded. My impression, however, is that the marginalization of mainstream alternative positions is no longer succeeding so easily. The real development is putting the apologists of climate alarmism in their place. And the off-the-rails energy policy, which believes will have an impact on the global climate, is doing the rest. Doubt over the dogmatic position of the CO2-alone is causing climate change is increasingly getting broader and more public.”

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Fritz Vahrenholt, is a professor of Chemistry at the University of Hamburg. He was also the former Environment Senator of Hamburg, and a member of the advisory board on sustainable development for both Chancellors Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel.