One Brave Old Man

Physicist Hal Lewis has resigned from the American Physical Society, where he had been a member for 67 years, (via Ace, of all people...) as a consequence of their refusal to admit any credence or even discussion about the validity of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Anthony Watts likens his letter of resignation to Luther's Theses. Me, I see a similarity to Emile Zola's J'Accuse.

And who is Dr. Lewis?

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)

Also one of the last students of Oppenheimer. Yes, that Oppenheimer. Serious and solid credentials. Dr. Lewis is also from an older, more rarefied era. One where steps of renunciation were only taken when all other options had failed. According to what he claims, the APS is in violation of its own Constitution and has actively thwarted his attempts to have a real, as opposed to manufactured, discussion on the merits.

I stopped my membership in APS for much the same reason, but with much less fanfare. I am a physics microbe compared to Dr. Lewis, but on this issue we are in complete agreement. AGW is not science. Dr. Lewis and I venerate science.

It appears the APS does not. J'Accuse.