Phelim McAleer is a journalist. In his capacity as a journalist, he is a skeptic. The role of skeptic – the one who asks the questions, the one who demands answers – is generally a lauded role in modern society. At least .. as long as there’s a Republican on the hot seat. But in climate circles, they have another word, a pejorative term, for skeptics: deniers. The church of global warming has no tolerance for heresy, and even less for probing questions or investigations. And so it is that the journalist Phelim McAleer was denied press credentials for the UN Climate Change Conference taking place in sunny Cancun, Mexico this week. (Certainly a better PR choice than frigid Copenhagen.)

Last year, McAleer and Ann McElhinney, with whom McAleer created the documentary Not Evil, Just Wrong, attended the Copenhagen conference. Their on-site reports resulted in over 2 million YouTube views, and a fair amount of press; which is likely the reason that McAleer was denied accreditation this year. Here’s an excerpt from the press release posted to the Not Evil, Just Wrong website:

McAleer says the refusal to allow him access to the Cancun Climate Change Conference is censorship.

“I sent them exactly the same documentation that was acceptable for Copenhagen last year, but it seems they did not like my coverage of Copenhagen and are now trying to silence me and the people who have questions about this process,” said McAleer.

“The message is clear—ask UN scientists and politicians difficult questions and you will be banned from any UN sponsored events. No difficult questions allowed,” he added.

As we saw with climategate, and see every day in the press and statements from vested interests, the global warming crowd can ill-afford doubt being cast or questions being raised. And why? Because the flawed IPCC reports and fudged data used to fuel Armageddon hysteria are necessary in order to accomplish their goals. Without “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!” they are going to have a much harder sell to the public when it comes to their proposed “solutions”.

Take, for example, this recommendation from Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, as reported by The Telegraph:

In one paper Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years.

This would mean a drastic change in lifestyles for many people in countries like Britain as everyone will have to buy less ‘carbon intensive’ goods and services such as long haul flights and fuel hungry cars.
Prof Anderson admitted it “would not be easy” to persuade people to reduce their consumption of goods.

He said politicians should consider a rationing system similar to the one introduced during the last “time of crisis” in the 1930s and 40s.

Rationing. Yeah that will go over big. Or how about this, from IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer, in an interview with German website NZZ Online, as reported by The Media Research Center:

(EDENHOFER): Basically it’s a big mistake to discuss climate policy separately from the major themes of globalization. The climate summit in Cancun at the end of the month is not a climate conference, but one of the largest economic conferences since the Second World War. Why? Because we have 11,000 gigatons of carbon in the coal reserves in the soil under our feet – and we must emit only 400 gigatons in the atmosphere if we want to keep the 2-degree target. 11 000 to 400 – there is no getting around the fact that most of the fossil reserves must remain in the soil.

(NZZ): De facto, this means an expropriation of the countries with natural resources. This leads to a very different development from that which has been triggered by development policy.

(EDENHOFER): First of all, developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole.

The drastic and potentially devastating prescriptions by would-be climate change policy writers are so onerous, so unbelievable, that they know only true believers will be willing to undertake them. And not even they are in many cases.

Phelim McAleer asks too many uncomfortable questions. He, like many of us, wants the folks demanding we turn off America’s lights for 20 years have a better reason than that a bunch of scientists signed a petition. He, like so many of us, wants to know why the “landmark” IPCC report declaring a state of global hysteria was riddled with so very many factual errors and bad data. And he, like we, want to know why we should just sit down and shut up and take our medicine when so many questions remain unanswered. No … unasked.

But he won’t get to ask. And neither will we. The climate doom-sayers, you see, are afraid of the light of day in many ways, indeed.

Below, please find the full text of the Not Evil, Just Wrong press release.

Monday, 29 November 2010 12:56

The UN has refused access to the Cancun Climate Change Conference to Phelim McAleer, who is well known for asking scientists and politicians difficult questions about Global Warming orthodoxy.

McAleer was notified of the UN’s refusal to accredit him just days before the international conference opening today.

McAleer produced and directed Not Evil Just Wrong, a documentary on Global Warming, and his reports from Copenhagen Climate Change Conference went viral on Youtube.

During one encounter an armed UN security guard prevented McAleer from asking a scientist difficult questions about the climategate e-mails and warned that if he did not stop filming he would confiscate his equipment and expel him from the conference.
McAleer was also assaulted by environmentalists during a live TV interview.

McAleer says the refusal to allow him access to the Cancun Climate Change Conference is censorship.

“I sent them exactly the same documentation that was acceptable for Copenhagen last year, but it seems they did not like my coverage of Copenhagen and are now trying to silence me and the people who have questions about this process,” said McAleer.

“The message is clear—ask UN scientists and politicians difficult questions and you will be banned from any UN sponsored events. No difficult questions allowed,” he added.

McAleer is a 20 year veteran journalist who covered the Northern Ireland troubles. He has also worked for the UK Sunday Times and as a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times and The Economist. He has worked as a journalist and film maker in countries as diverse as Ireland, Romania, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Madagascar, Chile, Indonesia, Vietnam, and many other countries.