I'm not good enough for the Climatesceptics Yahoo Group

A while back, Tim Lambert determined that a supposed survey of climatologists about global warming was useless because the password to take the survey was leaked to an email list of climate "skeptics". I decided I should get myself added to that list and make sure they're not pulling any other fast ones. Problems arose, however, stemming from my decision to play it straight. In my request to join I said I was doubtful of the skeptics' position, but willing to listen to their arguments.

I received this reply from the list moderator, Timo Hameranta:

Dear "schmidtb98",

thankyou for your interest to Sceptical Climate Science –
Climatesceptics – the global
scientific discussion group.

Unfortunately, our group is for climate scientists only.

Yours sincerely

Timo Hämeranta

As of today, the climatesceptics web page says it is "primarily" for climate scientists. I'm curious whether it was always described that way, but even if it did have that description, it's not "only" for climatologists. The list also has 279 members, and I doubt all of them are climate scientists.

Along with getting banned from The Free Republic for offering a charity bet over global warming, I'm just picking up the rejection slips. Feels kind of lonely.

UPDATE: In the comments to this post, Steve Bloom and William show that as recently as last November, the group was open to non-climate scientists (and maybe it still is if you have the right viewpoint). I'm kicking myself for failing to note the group's description when I tried to apply - I wonder if the removal from invitation of "other participants" had anything to do with little ol' me.

UPDATE 2: After emailing Mr. Hameranta about my doubts regarding his explanation, he responded:

You have correctly noticed that this group has also layman members.

For the moment and in the foreseeable future we do not accept laymen
anymore.

This group is primarily for climate scientists interested in discussing
PRO and CON
critical and sceptical views in climatology.

Honestly I can assure that your suspicion is unfounded. 

I don't know the man's character, so I can't make a definitive judgment, but it still seems fishy to me.


science, global warming