Dangerous Times: We don't want climate science but we want to know about weather @wattsupwiththat

After all the articles at WUWT where they clearly wanted to stop climate research at NOAA, I was struck by the contradiction in the juxtaposition of the two most recent articles (here and here). In one, Anthony Watts' rabble were calling for NASA to stop all climate research. The more recent article was about the massive storms that have been and will be affecting California.

In other words, disinformers want to prevent any new insight into climate and how it's changing: why California went from very serious drought to very serious floods in a matter of weeks. They still expect detailed information about weather. If the forecasts miss by a millimetre, it's the fault of scientists. The political agitators will take not a skerrick of responsibility for cutting science and preventing researchers from making and analysing observations in the broader context.

You might just call it irresponsible. I call it obscene, scandalous, immoral, even murderous (people die in extreme weather). You might argue that the denier plebs are merely ignorant. I say they are not. These are people who've been talking climate for years. They've no excuse but sheer wilful obstinacy for not knowing the first thing about climate.

Take this comment from long time WUWT-er Pamela Gray, who claims to "have done research and published". Yet in all the years she's been slapping her (or his) "thoughts" at WUWT, she's not bothered to take the time to learn a jot about climate science. Pamela Gray wrote how scientists "don't know nuffin'" and how she thinks an ice age cometh:

February 19, 2017 at 10:38 am
Atmospheric large semi-permanent pressure systems and jet streams do not turn on a dime. It takes months post-elNino onset before temperatures peak and large weather pattern systems are fully affected. It takes months post-peak temperatures before those pressure systems return to a semblance of a previous state. Predictions of temperature trends (up, down, stagnant) are fraught with unknowable chaos. I wouldn’t touch what amounts to weather predictions with a 10 foot pole with acid on the end.

I can say this, we are at/near the wonderful peak of an interglacial. These present discussions on minutia are invisible in the 800,000 oscillation, even when brought to a finer scale. Can’t see the hockey stick (unless you use that trick). So enjoy the interglacial, even if it gets warmer. Our great-great-great grandbabies are the ones who may have to struggle to keep their children warm.

She posted that ridiculous "thought" on another recent article that was pointing out that even in the currently favoured UAH data, there won't be a "pause" in the temperature rise for a very long time. Deniers' typical response was that the data can't be trusted! Yeah, really. Here's one example, from alexei, who also wonders why WUWT-ers give any credence to what Judith Curry spouts:

February 19, 2017 at 10:51 am
@ Latitude – “Why do people still give credence to temp data they know has been “adjusted” constantly changed?”
Totally agree. It’s mystifying why we continue to see a series of articles based on these discredited stats. Or why Dr Curry is still referred to as a skeptic, albeit lukewarm, when she writes (recently) about human-induced climate change and has so far, refrained from elucidating what part of the changing climate is due to man.

The biggest fraud at WUWT is Anthony Watts, of course. He's the one that encourages and supports the effort to stop science, by falsely alleging scientists are committing fraud and by posting articles full of pseudo-science and wacky conspiracy theories.

Science is under threat. This isn't just the dim deniers in the dark corners of the internet any more. This isn't just disinformers like David Rose, writing nonsense in the gutter press.  This is elected leaders, even supposedly informed ones like Australia's Malcolm Turnbull.

Populist politics rages against the wisdom of specialists and experts - people who create knowledge and expand our understanding of the universe. If WUWT-ers and some political leaders had their way there'd be no centres of education, no public education, no universities or research centres. The illiterati read something they can't stomach but instead of asking the normal question "what can we do to help?", they say "we don't want to know. We'd rather be ignorant and that everyone else was ignorant too."

Will we pull through this or are we about to enter another Dark Age? If we are about to fall into a chaos of ignorance, will we survive it? Will our social structures survive this? Will democracy survive?

I don't know the answer to these questions. You may think I'm being alarmist. I believe we are entering a dangerous period.

It's time for more journalists and scientists to speak up, even though it may not be in their nature to do so (scientists, that is). It's time for industries that rely on this knowledge to take a stand. Many climate scientists have been speaking out for years. There are some excellent journalists who have survived the journalist purge and do some top work. However it's not just climate science that's under threat, it's environmental science and all earth sciences. It's medical and health science, it's social sciences. It's knowledge and expertise in general that is under threat, including expertise in governing. There's no reason it won't spread to other sciences, like agricultural science, computer science, and even basic sciences like physics and chemistry and biology.

Over to you.