Eco-Terrorism In Alabama?

This story hasn’t gotten anywhere near enough attention. Dr. John Christy and Dr. Roy Spencer are eminent climate scientists. They are realists who have done much to demolish the hysterical claims of the politically- and financially-motivated climate alarmists. Both Dr. Christy and Dr. Spencer teach at the University of Alabama Huntsville, where there was a left-wing “march for science” last Saturday. The march passed near by the National Space Science and Technology Center building where both Christy an Spencer have offices. Some time in the hours after the march, someone fired seven shots into the Space Science and Technology Center, near Christy’s office.

Roy Spencer writes:

A total of seven shots were fired into our National Space Science and Technology Center (NSSTC) building here at UAH over the weekend.

All bullets hit the 4th floor, which is where John Christy’s office is (my office is in another part of the building).

Given that this was Earth Day weekend, with a March for Science passing right past our building on Saturday afternoon, I think this is more than coincidence. When some people cannot argue facts, they resort to violence to get their way. …

Our street is fairly quiet, so I doubt the shots were fired during Saturday’s march here. It was probably late night Saturday or Sunday for the shooter to have a chance of being unnoticed.

Maybe the “March For Science” should have been called the “March To Silence”.

Campus and city police say they believe the shots were fired from a passing car, based upon the angle of entry into one of the offices. Shell casings were recovered outside. The closest distance a passing car would have been is 70 yards away.

This is a photo of Dr. Christy viewing a bullet hole in a window in the office next to his:

christy-bullet-hole

Apparently local authorities were quick to brand the shooting as “random,” although it is not clear what evidence supports that conclusion. Dr. Spencer adds:

Even if: (1) the bullets had hit the other end of the building, (2) on the first floor, (3) it didn’t happen on Earth Day weekend, and (4) there was no March for Science that weekend, I would still consider 7 shots fired into our building a probable act of ecoterrorism.

I am not surprised this happened at all.

For the last 25 years our science has been viewed as standing in the way of efforts to institute a carbon tax or otherwise reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The amount of money involved in such changes in energy policy easily run into the hundreds of billions of dollars…more likely trillions.

When I was at NASA, my boss was personally told by Al Gore that Gore blamed our satellite temperature dataset for the failure of carbon tax legislation to pass.

So why am I not surprised that our building was shot up?

Because people have been killed for much less reason than hundreds of billions of dollars.

This is why the FBI needs to get involved in this case, if they haven’t already. Ecoterrorism is a federal crime. There were federal employees in the building at the time the shots were fired into the building.

The original media reports that the event was a “random shooting” were, in my opinion, irresponsible. As far as I know, there were no questions asked of us, like “Do you know why someone might have intentionally shot into your building?”

Well, hell, yes I know why. And I’m a little surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

John and I have testified in congress many times on our work. John has been particularly effective in his testimony over the years. While I believe the shots were a “message” to us, I don’t think John or I are that worried for our personal safety.

I join in Dr. Spencer’s call for an FBI investigation. If someone shot up Michael Mann’s office, do you think it would be deemed “random” without a meaningful investigation?

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