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SCIENTISTS UNSCIENTIFIC
Martin Livermore makes an obvious yet oft-shunned point:
To shut down debate is unscientific. Science progresses by observation and deduction, by setting up hypotheses and testing them. Allowing one view to be pushed forward with no dissent sets a precedent that will stifle innovative thinking. Whatever Al Gore may believe, there is an even more inconvenient truth: he could be wrong.
Adjust the computer models.
Whatever Al Gore may believe, there is an even more inconvenient truth: he could be wrong.
At this point, it doesn’t matter if he’s wrong or not. When the global warming crisis finally peters out, he will have had powerful influence and made millions of dollars, and that alone will make him a pundit among the powerful for the rest of his life.
The alamists were never called to account for global cooling in the 70s.
Those who predicted the massive populations that were to have overwhelmed resources and brought down civilizations by now were not called on it. Some are still doing it.
I think that Robert Heinlein was one of the few that formally admitted that he didn’t predict the green revolution that started in the 50s and picked up momentum through the next quarter century. This refers to the advancements in fertilizers, pesticides and seeds that substantially improved crop yields and supplanted traditional agricultural practices.There were other alarmists that predicted nuclear war between the US and the USSR at any moment, who were also wrong. When we think about how Hollywood backed that, with movies and TV shows that portrayed the same nightmares incessantly, we shouldn’t be surprised at their reaction now. Mark Steyn wryly notes how these same alarmists seem to have no concerns whatsoever that far more unstable governments now have nuclear weapons, or are eagerly grasping for this capability.
Whatever power or influence this gives Al Gore - or adds to that which this rich man, the son of senators and rich men, already has - it’s the damage this will do to the scientific community that I regard as the most lamentable outcome. Just as millions now are willing to accept AGW because they’re being told that “it’s science,” they’ll just as resolutely reject science when the whole silly idea collapses. The result - a greater embrace of superstition and pseudoscience in the aftermath, comparable to the mystic fads and astrology crazes of the ‘70s.
Thanks, Al Gore - we get to live through the ‘70s one more time. Damn your black soul.
Posted by rick mcginnis on 2007 03 02 at 10:24 AM • permalinkI had some snark to post, but rick mcginnis really deserves kudos for his post in #7. He is exactly right.
Al Gore is not alone in his shameless manipulation and scamming (I am not convinced that he believes his own preaching), but he is surely the leading light of the new religion known as AGW. The damage this will do to the scientific community will take generations to heal.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 03 02 at 10:30 AM • permalinkI can only hope that like all bloated, media-obsessed, delusional celebrities, they’ll soon find Mr Gore purple-faced on a toilet. The way this guy is obviously scarfing down deep fried twinkies and yoohoos, his plaque filled arteries are bound to bring this on sooner than later. Then we can all spend the following decades claiming to have seen him in an airport or McDonalds.
And what Rick McGinnis said…
#5, mark, Paco posted a while back that he would be MIA for a couple of months. I have a suspicion that wronwright has sent him on some wild goose chase in the Tardis, and we can only pray that he’s not jacked up in some medieval dungeon somewhere, trying to negotiate for Norman shield replacements.
Now that there is evidence that Mars is having a Gorebal warm up, Marvin the Martian is pointing Al, in the direction to get the hell off Mars, before it snows.
Marvin also told Al that the word Oscar in Martian means, asshole.
#12 Retread. You said it, brother! I’m just waiting for Jack Daniels and Marlboro to become the leading antioxidants. Move over beta-caratine, its time for a Manhattan and a filterless*!
* FDA has yet to determine if drinking bourbon and smoking tobacco are actually beneficial for pregnant women or Asians over the age of 70.I agree with #‘s 12 & 13. One way or another, science has been doing this to us for centuries. Today’s global warming scare is bigger because the media has greater power than ever and it has loaned its power to Al Gore and the other high priests, but in the long run, it won’t change anything.
Like as not, our children will be debating global cooling, and their children will be debating global warming and their children…
Posted by tim maguire on 2007 03 02 at 12:25 PM • permalinkOne day the scientific establishment might be called to account for all this. It’s possible, but unlikely.
Oh, I think they’ve gone a monger too far this time. They’ve raised the sense of alarm to a level previously unseen and have managed to panic people and governments all over the planet to a point that most want us to do something. And they’ve made what may turn out to be their fatal error with all this “science settled”, “debate closed”, “deniers shunned” nonsense.
When things don’t play out as predicted, plenty of people are gonna want to know why and I, for one, look forward to hearing the inevitable excuses, rationalizations and alibis.I’m just waiting for Jack Daniels and Marlboro to become the leading antioxidants.
Shades of Woody Allen:
Dr. Melik: [puzzling over list of items sold at Miles’ old health-food store] ... wheat germ, organic honey and… tiger’s milk.
Dr. Aragon: Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties.
Dr. Melik: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or… hot fudge?
Dr. Aragon: [chuckling] Those were thought to be unhealthy… precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true.
Dr. Melik: Incredible!Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 03 02 at 12:50 PM • permalinkA huge part of the Left gave up on science many years ago. Look at those who believe in feng shui, health crystals, or whatever. Real science (i.e., data-driven hypothesis testing with good statistical work) is way too hard, and it’s easier to believe what makes one feel good.
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2007 03 02 at 01:56 PM • permalinkI recently found an awesome speech by Michael Crichton on the topic of
global warming and aliens. A must-read.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 03 02 at 02:04 PM • permalinkThis has less to do with science than ideology and the attendant agendas.
And money. Don’t forget to follow the money. Dan Riehl has a few things to say about what may be motivating high roller Gorebots. Note the support of unfettered capitalism in the comments. In his disciples’ eyes, The Goreacle can do no wrong.
I like the light bulb.
Speaking of Kalifornia and light bulbs: California Debates Banning The Common Light Blub
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2007 03 02 at 02:50 PM • permalinkCould we refrain from calling for the death of people we disagree with? Just for like a week, maybe? I know, I’m just an ol’ fuddy-duddy.
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2007 03 02 at 04:32 PM • permalinkCould we refrain from calling for the death of people we disagree with? Just for like a week, maybe?
Get real, Treach. I’ve only got twenty-four hours in my day and I can’t spend all of them with the Virtual Voodoo Doll.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 03 02 at 05:38 PM • permalink#5 “How have we arrived at a state of affairs when we cranky ol’ conservatives are more openminded than liberals?”
It happened some time ago, probaly the late ‘70s when hippies met punks. I have for long been telling people that the “progressive” left is progressive only in so far as it wants to dig a hole progressively deeper.
And where is Paco? What have you bastards done with him? He’s away for a couple of months. He said he’ll explain when he returns.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 03 02 at 05:54 PM • permalink#14 No, it’s not “science” but cheap snake oil salesmen.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 03 02 at 05:59 PM • permalink#18 So true. Science, in their mind, is merely a white peternalistic social construct.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 03 02 at 06:02 PM • permalinkPet rocks.
Yo-yo’s.
Disco.
Flared pants.
Global warming.
Enough said. If you think of global warming as fashion rather than science, then all becomes clear.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 03 02 at 06:03 PM • permalinkThanks Treach, I am with you on that one.
Although this comment on a post on the subject makes me think they have a mole at the HuffPo with a perfectly honed and balanced sense of irony
Arriana- I’ll bet anything it was right-wing trolls who posted those comments in the first place. It’s a typical ruse to make US look like bloodthirsty maniacs instead of Cheney. Now if Hannity or Limbaugh dies, a different dynamic will be at work. PARTY TIME!!!
By: citizenofmarsThe “Mars” reference is either a givaway, or just too delicious, the mark of a great ironist, or subnormal IQ, I honestly can’t tell which.
There are two kinds of global warming alarmists:
1. the global warming capitalists who see it as a great money maker, such as al-Gore and Tim Flannery; and ,
2. the global warming Khmer Rouge who see it as the way to achieve their dream of world where industry and commerce are abolished and replaced by a communist agarian society in which people live at one with the land. This utopia would be ruled by a benevolent Pol Pot figure to ensure purity of thought and deed. Bob Brown is a leader of this group.These two groups are incompatible and will one day fall upon each other like a pack of Tolkien’s orcs. My money is on the rich kids.
#31 Brilliant social analysis. I do believe Flummery may be one of the Khmer Rouge however. He’s the type to donate all his profits to Geothermia and be the first bunny down the hole.
#19 That Crichton speech is the best takedown of GW hysteria I have read. Simple, clear, devastating, especially for us non-technocratic types. Can’t recommend it highly enough. I’m going to stand on streetcorners handing it out. Right next to the Green-Left Weekly dudes. After I kick ‘em in the nuts o’course.
I’ve read the linked Crichton speech a couple of times before, but it’s interesting time and time again just how on-the-money he was. I always find something new that’s surprising or insightful, given recent events. This time around:
But Sagan and his co-workers were prepared, for nuclear winter was from the outset the subject of a well-orchestrated media campaign. The first announcement of nuclear winter appeared in an article by Sagan in the Sunday supplement, Parade. The very next day, a highly-publicized, high-profile conference on the long-term consequences of nuclear war was held in Washington, chaired by Carl Sagan and Paul Ehrlich, the most famous and media-savvy scientists of their generation. Sagan appeared on the Johnny Carson show 40 times. Ehrlich was on 25 times. Following the conference, there were press conferences, meetings with congressmen, and so on. The formal papers in Science came months later.
Remind you of any recent IPCC publication?
#24 Wimpy Canadian
And where is Paco? What have you bastards done with him?
He’s away for a couple of months. He said he’ll explain when he returns.
In the form of an elaborate “Detective Paco” yarn, I would assume.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 03 02 at 11:44 PM • permalink#33 yeah PW I know it’s from 2003, but it was new to me.
Posted by daddy dave on 2007 03 03 at 12:07 AM • permalink#32 I’ll stick with Flannery being in it for the money. This guy is a big consumer. He would look at Geothermia in the same way any property developer looks at a project. When the suckers who have paid big money to live in his jobless, waterless wasteland realise they have been had, Flannery will be sunning himself in his Gore mansion in Majorca.
#34
Well I hope so. I hope Detective Paco’s dog Bogan is in it.Posted by Michael Lonie on 2007 03 03 at 12:18 AM • permalinkWhen the empiricists are finally proved correct by a planetary cool down, it’ll be those smug AGW shamans and their acolytes who’ll be strutting about claiming they made a difference.
I doubt it. Even Paul Ehrlich hasn’t been dumb enough to claim that his hysterics about the population bomb and resource depletion were what helped prevent those problems from materializing.
Instead, I think they’ll immediately get busy cooking up the next cargo cult scaremonger scheme, before anyone can get a chance to hold them accountable for the last one.
#40 Sio true. They have already done that twist with the Ozone holeOZONE HOLE. Remember that?
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 03 03 at 10:37 AM • permalink
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One day the scientific establishment might be called to account for all this. It’s possible, but unlikely.
Another of those ‘inconvenient truths’ I guess.