Rex Murphy: The Ernst Zundel of Climate Denial

I have previously written rather caustically of Rex Murphy’s climate denial. For those who don’t know, Rex Murphy has a segment on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s The National Newshour, in which he regularly dismisses climate change as nonsense. Ernst Zündel is a lunatic neo-nazi Holocaust denier deported from Canada for being “not only a threat to Canada’s national security, but also a threat to the international community of nations.” He was convicted in his native Germany of various Holocaust denier-related charges and sentenced to the maximum five years.

How on Earth can Rex Murphy be equated to a neo-nazi stirring up hatred against Jews? The similarity is in their denial of reality, and what that means. Zündel wrote, published, and spoke out repeatedly to deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Rex is a climate change denier, which is already causing great destruction and will certainly cause much more; top scientists are saying climate change is extremely dangerous. The climate holocaust has started, and Rex Murphy is denying it. Like Zündel, Murphy is “not only a threat to Canada’s national security, but also a threat to the international community of nations.”

During Zündel’s trial in Germany, the prosecutor described him as a “‘political con man’ from whom the German people needed protection.” This description nicely fits both Holocaust and climate deniers, including Murphy. Regarding Holocaust denial, the prosecutor went on to say that “[you] might as well argue that the sun rises in the West… But you cannot change that the Holocaust has been proven.” Similarly, climate science is a done deal, and denying it is to deny reality.

Murphy’s sources are as biased and incredible as Zündel’s; Murphy’s “climate heroes” include two well-known Canadian climate deniers, neither of whom is a scientist, never mind a climate scientist. One is an economist and one is a former mining stock promoter. He chooses to believe these two over climate scientists.

And lastly, Rex Murphy had this to say about Zündel’s attempt to claim refugee status in Canada: “If Ernst Zündel is a refugee, Daffy Duck is Albert Einstein… Some propositions are so ludicrous that they are a betrayal of common sense and human dignity if allowed a moment’s oxygen.”

One could equally well say: “If [insert any climate denier name here] is a reputable source on climate change, Daffy Duck is Albert Einstein….”

Unfortunately, we cannot deport Rex Murphy anywhere, and in any event he is protected by Executive Producer of The National, who does not believe it is the job of the news to report truth, as he believes all truth is subjective. This might be the case with certain issues, like the morality of abortion, but is senseless when it comes to science. You can have whatever opinion you wish on the theory of gravity (and scientifically, it is still a theory), but your opinion isn’t going to cushion your landing.

Neither will Rex Murphy’s dangerous climate denial stop reality from catching up with us – but it will prevent us from preparing for it.