J.K. Rowling Joins Physicist Brian Cox and Monty Python's Eric Idle in Calling Out Climate Science Denial

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onAug 17, 2016 @ 18:01 PDT

This is a guest post from ClimateDenierRoundup crossposted from Daily Kos.

What do esteemed physicist Brian Cox, Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling, and Monty Python comedy legend Eric Idle all have inย common?

Besides being some of our favorite Brits, they all share disdain for climate denial, particularly that espoused by far-right Aussie Senator Malcolmย Roberts.

It all started on the Australian TV show Q&A, which features a panel of six guests who answer questions. Professor Brian Cox wasย asked to explain climate changeย to the senator in denial, and did so with graphs showing rising temperatures and CO2ย emissions.

True to denier form, Roberts rejected the evidence presented, citing blogger Steven Goddard (who isย so misleading even WUWT rejects him) to claim that NASA has manipulated the data. Itโ€™s worth noting that this happened on Monday evening, the day before NASA announced that July 2016 was the hottest month everย recorded.

Roberts didnโ€™t get any better from there. In fact, he was mocked not only by the audienceโ€™s laughter and the other panelists, but before longย Twitter picked up on the episode.

So NASAโ€™sย Gavin Schmidt went on a bit of a tweeting tiradeย (warranted, given his team was accused of fraud) about how deniers claim thereโ€™s manipulation, but the records are publicly available for anyone to test and verifyย themselves.

And Schmidt was far from the only one to take notice. None other thanย Monty Python legend Eric Idle askedย where deniers like Roberts come from and how they get elected, adding that their denial of climate change is a danger to us all. (Not a particularly funny tweet, but spotย on.)

Picking up on Schmidtโ€™s tweet and then adding her own commentary was Princeton-educated-astrophysicist Katie Mack, who was rewarded forย her tweet withย the standard abuse launched by denier twits. One of them even challenged Mack to โ€œlearn some actual SCIENCE.โ€ To which sheย responded: โ€œI dunno, man, I already went and got a PhD in astrophysics. Seems like more than that would be overkill at thisย point.โ€

This magical exchange was then elevated to the ranks of Twitter legend whenย none other than J.K. Rowlingย said it had โ€œforever validatedโ€ the existence ofย Twitter.

In honor of the now-global lambasting of denial, we leave you with this: A physicist, a wizard and a python walk into a bar. On TV, an Australian senator is arguing that climate change isnโ€™t real. The physicist chuckles saying, โ€œObviously heโ€™s an Aussie, heโ€™s got the whole situation upside down!โ€ The wizard scoffs, โ€œAll the worldโ€™s climate scientists successfully perpetrating a hoax of this scale? Even I donโ€™t believe in magic that powerful!โ€ ย But the snake is notablyย angry.

It hisses โ€œI may be an Egyptian snake, but this is awful. I canโ€™t stand De Nile!โ€ย ย 

โ€œYou canโ€™t stand at all,โ€ muttered the physicist inย response.

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