Thursday, June 07, 2007
CONSENSUS LESS CONSENSY
Mark Hoofnagle predicts:
In the future we may start seeing global warming denialism from the left as well as the right.
But ... but ... the debate is over! And it’s been over for 15 years, according to Al the Colder:
“Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled.”
So said Al Gore ... in 1992. Amazingly, he made his claims despite much evidence of their falsity. A Gallup poll at the time reported that 53% of scientists actively involved in global climate research did not believe global warming had occurred; 30% weren’t sure; and only 17% believed global warming had begun. Even a Greenpeace poll showed 47% of climatologists didn’t think a runaway greenhouse effect was imminent; only 36% thought it possible and a mere 13% thought it probable.
Today, Al Gore is making the same claims of a scientific consensus, as do the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of government agencies and environmental groups around the world. But the claims of a scientific consensus remain unsubstantiated. They have only become louder and more frequent.
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UPDATE. Hoofnagle is unhappy.
UPDATE II. This Hoofnagle guy is really unhappy. And also just the teensiest bit snooty:
I have a degree in physics. It allows me to know that your statement is grossly absurd.