Heidi Cullen's comments are brewing up a storm.

The Weather Channel's Dr. Heidi Cullen, the host of the excellent show The Climate Code (Sundays, TWC, 5:30 pm with additional showings Saturdays, 5:30, 7:30, and 11:30) has caused a storm of controversy. I was going to write about this earlier, got all tangled up in what I thought about it, and gave up, but since it's developing into a major brouhaha I guess I'll go for it.

Dr. Cullen posted on her blog about a recent interview in which a meteorologist downplayed human impact on the environment, and pointed out that the American Meteorological Society (AMS) has released this statement:
"There is convincing evidence that since the industrial revolution, human activities, resulting in increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and other trace constituents in the atmosphere, have become a major agent of climate change."

Dr. Cullen then went on to suggest that "If a meteorologist can't speak to the fundamental science of climate change, then maybe the AMS shouldn't give them a Seal of Approval. Clearly, the AMS doesn't agree that global warming can be blamed on cyclical weather patterns. It's like allowing a meteorologist to go on-air and say that hurricanes rotate clockwise and tsunamis are caused by the weather. It's not a political statement...it's just an incorrect statement." LINK
(and if one more person gets all smug and says "but in the southern hemisphere..." I will hunt them down and hit them with herrings.)

Now, the Seal of Approval isn't a degree, it's an honorary thing, so it's not that major a thing. But, as one of the most influential and best known climatologists in the US, Dr. Cullen has a pretty big voice, and her suggestion to strip the Seal of Approval from members of the AMS who are climate change deniers has caused a tempest, and not just in a tea pot.

Some people are saying that her comments are calling for censorship of dissenting voices, and that "Battle ye not with monsters, lest ye also become a monster" (Nietzsche) . This is especially big, considering how much has come out about the current White House administration manipulated NOAA scientists and promoted/demoted people based on their willingness to toe the official line (ie. No human impact on climate change/no global warming, etc).

So Dr. Cullen going after the deniers and wanting to discredit them professionally is being compared to the dirty tricks the White House pulled, like having that 24 year old George Deutsch ( a journalism major who dropped out of college to campaign for Shrub) force NASA scientists to add the word 'theory' to every mention of the Big Bang (on religious grounds - intelligent design) and denied reporters access to Dr. James Hansen, perhaps the world's best known environmental scientist.

Well, I don't think so. Go Dr. Cullen. Holocaust deniers are fair game, they get professionally discredited for being willfully ignorant, and climate change deniers are doing the same- only, sad to say, I bet the climate change deniers get better paid.

ETA LINK to Independent article about this ruckus.

ETA Freaking Drudge has linked to some asshat weatherman who is defending the climate change deniers by claiming that "The climate of this planet has been changing since God put the planet here." Wow- sure sold me, buddy. His commenters are equally lovely, and offer such elegant explanations for Dr. Cullen's stand as "I think AlGore gives it to Heidi Cullen up the Ass, and he thinks that is hot shit!" Charming- and so articulate. I am so writing the station to complain, and if anyone else feels like doing the same, here is the LINK to contact ABC Alabama.