Posted on 04/26/2016 6:38:08 AM PDT by fredericbastiat1
In the face of a monolithically climate alarmist academia, media and government, several courageous individuals are working to unsettle the purportedly settled science of climate change, arguing that carbon dioxide atmospheric enrichment provides manifold benefits for mankind, that flawed economic models are being used to justify anti-capitalist and destructive public policies, that mild warming of the planet ought to be celebrated and fighting back courageously against those who wish to chill free speech by using the law to litigate science. This is their story. Featured speakers include Mark Steyn, international bestselling author and commentator, Dr. Craig Idso, Founder Former President and Current Chairman of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, Dr. Patrick Moore, Co-Founder of Greenpeace and author of Confessions of a Greenpeace DropoutThe Making of a Sensible Environmentalist, Dr. Ross McKitrick, Professor of Economics and Research Chair in Energy, Ecology and Prosperity at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Dr. Richard Lindzen Professor Emeritus of Atmospheric Sciences at MIT, Bruce Everett, a Specialist on Global Energy and Petroleum Issues and Adjunct Associate Professor of International Business, Fletcher School at Tufts University and Roger Kimball, Editor and Publisher of The New Criterion.
From “Scientific Regress” in the May issue of First Thing, by William A. Wilson, a software engineer in San Francisco.
“The best scientists know that they must practice a sort of mortification of the ego and cultivate a dispassion that allows them to report their findings, even when those findings might mean the dashing of hopes, the drying up of financial resources, and the loss of professional prestige. It should be no surprise that even after outgrowing the monasteries, the practice of science has attracted souls driven to seek the truth regardless of personal cost and despite, for most of its history, a distinct lack of financial or status reward. Now, however, science and especially science bureaucracy is a career, and one amenable to social climbing. Careers attract careerists, in Feyerabends words: devoid of ideas, full of fear, intent on producing some paltry result so that they can add to the flood of inane papers that now constitutes scientific progress in many areas.
If science was unprepared for the influx of careerists, it was even less prepared for the blossoming of the Cult of Science. The Cult is related to the phenomenon described as scientism; both have a tendency to treat the body of scientific knowledge as a holy book or an a-religious revelation that offers simple and decisive resolutions to deep questions. But it adds to this a pinch of glib frivolity and a dash of unembarrassed ignorance. Its rhetorical tics include a forced enthusiasm (a search on Twitter for the hashtag #sciencedancing speaks volumes) and a penchant for profanity. Here in Silicon Valley, one can scarcely go a day without seeing a t-shirt reading Science: It works, bes! The hero of the recent popular movie The Martian boasts that he will science the sh out of a situation. One of the largest groups on Facebook is titled I fing love Science! (a name which, combined with the groups penchant for posting scarcely any actual scientific material but a lot of pictures of natural phenomena, has prompted more than one actual scientist of my acquaintance to mutter under her breath, What you truly love is pictures). Some of the Cults leaders like to play dress-up as scientistsBill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson are two particularly prominent examples but hardly any of them have contributed any research results of note. Rather, Cult leadership trends heavily in the direction of educators, popularizers, and journalists.
Read article at:
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/scientific-regress
What IS settled is that climate alchemists have global media assistance in propelling their narrative and squelching every opposition. Neither the government-financed alchemists nor their mouthpieces can be trusted.
Until some DA explains to me how gasses can be insulators, I refuse to pay attention and just call them commies.
What is settled is that they want to conquer the world through carbon hysteria. Or at least find an alternative to the petro of the petro dollar. When you are over 20 trillion in debt, what else matters.
Awesome article! Thank you for posting!!
The global warming activists and politicians know precisely what they are pushing - global wealth redistribution and a two class system - the ruling filthy rich class and the rest of us peasants.
1. Claim global warming is settle science.
2. Marginalize those who disagree by stating they want to kill the earth, millions of people, and not leave a planet for their children.
3. Once the majority fall in line, easily pass laws so violators are punished in the name of saving the earth.
Forgot to add, I do get your point in regards to global warming. CO2 isn’t any more of a global insulator than any other gas (esp when it’s such a tiny part of the atmosphere), and I believe that water vapor is actually a much more effective “greenhouse gas”.
However, increasing CO2 doesn’t really cause any bonus heat, it’s more of a plant food that causes plants to grow much better. I remember reading a while ago that the ideal CO2 concentration for growing plants is about 10x greater than our atmosphere generally is.
Global Warming on Free Republic here, here and here
Good article...a keeper, thanks for posting
Thanks for the ping.
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