Interestingly, the FPS [Forum on Physics and Society] and the APS [The American Physical Society] did not make too much of a fuss in the past, when publishing “heretical” climate-related opinions. For an example, see Gerald E. Marsh’s “Climate Stability and Policy” in April 2008.
He's talking about how the APS has come down hard on the editors of one of their own news letters [FPS] after having been embarrassed by Lord Monckton in its pages. Here is the Marsh Paper Mr. Morabito refers to, and its conclusion is:
...that humanity faces a much greater danger from the glaciation associated with the next Ice Age, and that the carbon dioxide increases that we have seen during the past two hundred years are not sufficient to avert such glaciation and its associated disruptions to the biosphere and civilization as we know it. Such conflicting considerations have obvious implications for the formulation of public policy regarding human attempts to manage climate changes.
*Sigh*
Well, I suppose they did not make too much of a fuss previously because previous FPS newsletters did not make much of a splash beyond their usual readers. Marsh, whose website can be found here, seems to have forged few connections within the larger Denialist community. So, for example, earlier non-peer reviewed work of his was referenced by Canadafreepress, a far right Canadian news site, and Atmoz critiques a non-peer reviewed paper of his re the Sun's role in climate change here. But otherwise a wiki search of "Gerald E. Marsh" climate doesn't turn up much. Lord Monckton, on the other hand, knows how to do PR, if not science, and is deeply involved in any number of Skeptics organizations, including the ICSC and SPPI, which have a proven ability to blast their message into the Right Wing Blogosphere and the lower echelons of the MSM.
Now that they have been internationally embarrassed, the APS has responded vigorously.
As for the future of the APS and its newsletter (FPS), unfortunately
If John Mashey is right, all they [the APS] were guilty of was a failure to scrutinise rigorously the activities of volunteers who run a newsletter [the FPS] that happens to have their logo on the masthead. I think the implications are quite worrying: either learned societies will have to start acting like the repressive conspiracies the denialists claim they are, or this sort of thing will keep happening.
...a problem to which I see no easy solution.
