On the Road to the Seneca Cliff. Climate Skeptic Sites Removed from Search Engines

I often say that we are losing science. We are.

Corruption, incompetence, dogmatism, ideology, and cronyism are just some of the problems Science faces. And the attempts to keep it alive are backfiring. An example is how, recently, the main search engines, Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and others, have demoted their search results for climate skeptic sites.

I noticed it last week while surfing the Web. If you ask for the words that normally bring up skeptic sites, e.g., “climate hoax,” all you find are sites telling you how bad “deniers” are and how you should deal with those unfortunates to lead them to see the truth. I tried using a VPN and other tricks, but nothing changed. The only way to find skeptic sites on the first page is to use “non-Google” search engines such as Mojeek (recommended anyway).

At the beginning, I thought I was paranoid. But no, it was not a delusion of mine. Various AIs confirmed the demotion operation. Aria told me plainly, “Yes, major search engines have taken steps to demote sites that promote denial of global warming.” ChatGPT was also explicit, saying, “Google has taken steps to demote climate denial sites in its search results.” Perplexity was subtler but confirmed that “algorithms should be adjusted to prioritize scientifically accurate information over misleading claims.” Grok was even more cautious but admitted that something needs to be done to “demote climate skeptic sites.”

So, it is happening. Google and all the major search engines are censoring non-mainstream climate views. And it is not just the search engines. Even scientific journals are gradually restricting the possibility of publishing non-mainstream ideas. They are also using retraction to make dissenting voices disappear, and not just about climate science.

You might think I should be happy because I support climate science and I am a modest practitioner of some of its sectors.

But I am not happy. Not at all.

This is not a success for science. It is a disaster. It is not a good idea to have billionaires (or the government, or the green slimy creatures from Antares, or whatever) take control of the Internet and decide what we should see or not see. It is the perfect way to cause people to lose their trust in science, which has already been collapsing since the COVID management disaster.

It is true that much climate skepticism is political, supported, and paid for by financial lobbies. It is also true that many skeptics are incredibly naive, such as those who discuss Hannibal’s Elephants or Medieval Alpine roads as they were relevant to climate science. But others are intelligent and prepared enough to raise legitimate doubts about some aspects of climate science. You can sometimes discover from them that things are not as clear as you thought. Hiding their opinions is the perfect way to make those who read their sites think they are right.

One thing I am certain of is that we need to keep comparing different opinions and ideas. Otherwise, we are stuck, and science freezes, unable to progress anymore. The people who say that the science is settled are doing a bad service to science, to themselves, and to everybody.

Sometimes, the ideological approach of the so-called “climate activists” is not just counterproductive but plainly sickening. For example, an Italian scientist, Franco Prodi, was insulted as a “Putinist” by an activist in a public debate on TV for his moderately skeptical opinions. A scene that reminded the time of the Cultural Revolution in China. I tend to disagree with Prodi, but he is a serious and respectable scientist, and he didn’t deserve that.

This is not how to convince people that climate science is good science. Don’t forget that this is not a battle about science. It is a battle between huge financial lobbies. If the Fossil Lobby were to have the upper hand in the fight against the Internet Barons, they would reverse the policy of the search engines and show only their preferred interpretation of climate change. Don’t forget that about 25% of the members of the US Congress are declared climate skeptics and that decisions about climate policies are not taken by climate scientists but by politicians.

Unfortunately, it is normal for societies in trouble to close ranks and fight all dissent, and we may as well get used to that. It happened in the past, when Roman Emperors punished those “skeptics” who doubted their divine powers. It is happening in our society nowadays. Unfortunately, this rigid approach that tries to stop all changes is the fastest road to the Seneca Cliff in science and everything else: a rigid stance is the best way to collapse. Societies go to their graves thinking that everything is fine as it is, and that there is nothing that needs to be changed. Just one more stone head…