Townhall By James Taylor | Nov 22, 2019
More than 200 people, including dozens of scientists, are in hiding right now in Germany. I am one of them. I can tell you that I am in Munich, but I can’t tell you my hotel. I can tell you that the scientists will meet on Friday and Saturday to share scientific knowledge, but I can’t tell you where. The meeting, in which scientists will present evidence contradicting an asserted climate crisis, was scheduled to be open to the public, but fascist climate thugs have forced us into hiding. The German government, rather than protecting scientists and free speech, has explicitly refused to protect scientists from the threat of violence.
The lineup of speakers at the European Institute for Climate and Energy‘s (German acronym EIKE) annual climate conference is impressive. Among the speakers are scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, University of Bern, Danish National Space Center, Institute for Solid-State Nuclear Physics, Università di Napoli Federico II, and Universität Rostock. Their crime? Delivering talks titled, “The Real Condition of the Great Barrier Reef,” “The Influence of Greenhouse Gases on Climate Research,” “What Role Did the Sun Play in Climate Change,” etc. Seeking to shut down any scientific research and discussion that may endanger a purported justification for its anti-freedom political agenda, a climate activist group calling itself Offenes Antikapitalistisches Klimatreffen München, which is reportedly affiliated with the terror group Antifa, threatened the EIKE meeting, calling on thugs in Germany to mobilize against the conference.
EIKE, to its credit, courageously stuck to its conference plans despite the explicit threat. The Offenes Antikapitalistisches Klimatreffen München—which is roughly translated as the Munich Anti-capitalist Climate Activists—then upped the ante by storming the NH Conference Center in Munich. The group threatened additional action against employees and visitors at the conference center on the day of the conference and on the days leading up to the conference. Citing fears about the safety of its employees and guests, the NH Conference Center told EIKE it would not allow EIKE to hold its conference there.
Having invested tens of thousands of dollars into the event, including travel costs for scientists from around the world, EIKE asked the German courts to uphold the contract EIKE had signed with the NH Conference Center. Instead, a German court ruled the NH Conference Center faced a legitimate safety threat and therefore could violate its agreement with EIKE. A more just and civilized verdict would have been for the court to direct German police to protect scientists’ rights to free speech and academic freedom against fascist street thugs. But this is Germany and the street thugs share the same climate position as the German government. So, street thugs allied with the German government force free speech, academic freedom, and disfavored political views into hiding. And the German government is condoning this fascist thuggery by refusing to deploy police to keep the peace at a specific place and a specific event threatened by fascist street thugs.
