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You’re no climatologist! Or, who is allowed to criticize?
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/01/31/youre-no-climatologist-or-who-is-allowed-to-criticize/ ^ | William M Briggs

Posted on 01/31/2008 3:32:21 AM PST by mattstat

There is a distressing commonality when discussing climate science lately: many people skip past the data and arguments offered by a skeptic and ask the question, “Are you a climatologist?” The implication, sometimes flatly stated, is that, if you are not, then you have no business offering a negative opinion on the state of “the” science.

It is distressing because I repeatedly have to point out that it is a logical fallacy that because a person is not a climatologist their skeptical argument is therefore false. If you like labels, this fallacious retort is called the Appeal to Authority. Each argument must be assessed on its merits and cannot be dismissed because the person offered it does not meet a certain credentialing standard. Climate theory arguments from non-experts cannot be banned or forbidden tout court.

Being open to arguments from non-specialists in other fields has meant that honest scientists

(Excerpt) Read more at wmbriggs.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: climatology; globalwarming

1 posted on 01/31/2008 3:32:26 AM PST by mattstat
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To: mattstat; Killing Time; Beowulf; Mr. Peabody; RW_Whacko; honolulugal; SideoutFred; Ole Okie; ...


FReepmail me to get on or off
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH


blog entry... too many people reading "Rules for Radicals" by Saul Alinsky....
2 posted on 01/31/2008 3:35:54 AM PST by xcamel (Two-hand-voting now in play - One on lever, other holding nose.)
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To: mattstat

Kind of like, “you deny evolution? well, are you a biologist?!?!?”


3 posted on 01/31/2008 3:38:29 AM PST by ovrtaxt (No Rudy McRombee for me! I voted for Ron Paul. The GOP can curl up and die.)
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To: mattstat

Great points all, well stated....but it all boils down to the fact that liberals retort by beating the messenger, conservatives retort by sticking to the facts. The dumbing down of the masses by Gubmint educators is expanding the liberal base.

McCain (liberal) v. Romney (conservative) was a great display of that tendency last nite. (note...liberals don’t know they are doing it, so none will have noticed this difference, especially ACooper)


4 posted on 01/31/2008 3:39:06 AM PST by CRBDeuce (an armed society is a polite society)
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To: mattstat
Meteorology 101 --> The SUN is responsible for climate change aka global warming or global cooling.

Need a technical explanation: Global Warming: The Origin and Nature of the Alleged Scientific Consensus by Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

5 posted on 01/31/2008 3:39:29 AM PST by xtinct (I was the next door neighbor kid's imaginary friend.)
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To: mattstat

Ecxcellent.

Thanks for posting.


6 posted on 01/31/2008 3:55:10 AM PST by sig226 (If we took the bones out it wouldn't be crunchy.)
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To: sig226

Excellent. (yikes)


7 posted on 01/31/2008 3:56:02 AM PST by sig226 (If we took the bones out it wouldn't be crunchy.)
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To: sig226

You’re no English teacher.


8 posted on 01/31/2008 3:57:43 AM PST by palmer
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To: xtinct
The activities of the Union of Concerned Scientists deserve special mention. (snip)

Over the past few years, the organization has turned to the battle against global warming in a particularly hysterical manner. In 1989 the group began to circulate a petition urging recognition of global warming as potentially the great danger to mankind. Most recipients who did not sign were solicited at least twice more. The petition was eventually signed by 700 scientists including a great many members of the National Academy of Sciences and Nobel laureates. Only about three or four of the signers, however, had any involvement in climatology. Interestingly, the petition had two pages, and on the second page there was a call for renewed consideration of nuclear power. When the petition was published in the New York Times, however, the second page was omitted.

Here's the money quote.

9 posted on 01/31/2008 4:04:12 AM PST by Hardastarboard (DemocraticUnderground.com is an internet hate site.)
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To: Hardastarboard

exactly...


10 posted on 01/31/2008 4:08:21 AM PST by xtinct (I was the next door neighbor kid's imaginary friend.)
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To: Beowulf; Defendingliberty; WL-law; Normandy

Beam me to Planet Gore !

11 posted on 01/31/2008 4:19:58 AM PST by steelyourfaith
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To: mattstat

The Appeal to Authority Fallacy and its inverse are hallmarks of the left. Another quintessential example is their insistence that only (antiwar) Veterans are able to offer an opinion on the validity of the War on Terror.


12 posted on 01/31/2008 5:09:29 AM PST by jiggyboy (Ten per cent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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To: mattstat
Recall an old saying: “ You do not have to be able to lay an egg to judge an omelet.”
13 posted on 01/31/2008 6:00:05 AM PST by Citizen Tom Paine (Swift as the wind; Calmly majestic as a forest; Steady as the mountains.)
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To: mattstat

rolling stone magazine should sell “I R a climatologist” diplomas for $20.


14 posted on 01/31/2008 6:04:27 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: xcamel
This is the odd thing: you never hear or read of somebody asking a mere journalist who has just breathlessly reported on a paper that purports to show how birds will suffer under global warming, why he, the journalist, should have written his article because he is obviously not a climatologist or ornithologist.

Yup!

I have just as much authority to publicly "deny" or be "skeptical" as a Mechanical Engineer as fellow M.E. Bill-Nye "the Science Guy" has to make stupid hysterical claims of doom.

For that matter, I probably have MORE authority to state my skepticism than that "Climate Expert" woman from the weather channel who has a PhD in some sort of "Mystical Religious Studies". But she is treated as an "expert" and I am not.

15 posted on 01/31/2008 3:19:26 PM PST by SteamShovel (Global Warming, the New Patriotism)
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