When the surface temperatures of Venus were discovered there should have been a line of scientists five miles long at Velikovsky’s door waiting to apologize. The idea that any sort of a greenhouse effect could cause 1000F temperatures on a planet where no light even gets through the cloud layers is beyond ludicrous.
Exactly. However, Post-Normal Science was already being practiced, and no scientist who wanted to keep their job would have dared. Establishment science’s treatment of Velikovsky was way off the scale of legitimate skepticism long before a single of his predictions panned out. Anyone who has ever heard the warning “better get with the program” or something like it knows what is expected of them. Few are willing to buck the system.