Sending corporate executives to jail for “spread[ing] doubt” about global warming should strike everyone as far-fetched and radical — regardless of one’s views on the science itself. Nonetheless, NASA’s chief scientist reportedly made such a serious suggestion to Congress.
Growing up, we read George Orwell’s 1984 and bristled at the anti-American notion of speech and thought control. Our country’s heritage of respect for the rights of free speech and association and the right to petition the government is preserved in the very First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — rights that historically fostered initially controversial causes such as the labor union and civil rights movements.
