Posted on 06/27/2008 8:56:50 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch
"The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud," a riveting book by Canadian environmental journalist Lawrence Solomon, should be read by anyone who wants to understand where and why substantive debate remains concerning climate change, says H. Sterling Burnett, a senior fellow with the National Center of Policy Analysis.
About a year ago, Solomon began examining the credentials of, and arguments made by, scientists and economists labeled "deniers" by global warming activists and the media. Solomon sought the truth concerning whether there was in fact a consensus on the headline-grabbing issue of global warming, says Burnett.
Solomon's important discoveries include:
Contrary to the belief popularized by the mainstream media, dissenting scientists are not rare. On every headline global warming issue, not only were there serious scientists who dissented, consistently the dissenters were by far the more accomplished and eminent scientists. Uncertainties concerning each important facet of the "consensus" view on warming abound, and the dissenting views are at least as plausible -- and often more compelling -- than the alarmist point of view. Many scientists have suffered harsh treatment, simply because they follow the scientific method and their own consciences, which led them to conclude global warming is not a crisis. The deniers faced furious criticism; funding for their crucial experiments was delayed or cut off; they endured campaigns intended to smear them personally; and some were even charged with deliberately distorting data in the service of special interests. Though there are many good books on global warming, "The Deniers" is among the most effective in showing how science is being fundamentally undermined in the current politicized atmosphere of climate research, says Burnett.
Source: H. Sterling Burnett, "A Must-Read Book on Global Warming," Heartland Institute, July 1, 2008; based upon: Lawrence Solomon, "The Deniers: The World Renowned Scientists Who Stood Up Against Global Warming Hysteria, Political Persecution, and Fraud," Richard Vigilante Books, April 1, 2008.
For text:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=23409
For more on Global Warming Science:
http://eteam.ncpa.org/issues/?c=science
For more on Global Warming:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=32
Slowly more scientists are getting braver and speaking out on this issue. Too bad science’s image is being tarnished beyond repair, imho.
There is no such thing as climate Science. Unless there is a “control” Earth where we can isolate the variables all we can do is gather and attempt to interpret data, that may well be done in a “scientific” manner; but Science calls for a bit more, something about control groups, replicability, etc. All of which is impossible when studying the entire Earth.
Science will survive just fine, seeings as how it is the most productive means of gaining useful information about the universe ever proposed or implemented by mankind.
Sounds interesting
btt
Geology
I wish I had bookmarked that article, because it used very easy analogies to help understand it, but alas, over time my memory has failed to recall the details.
It’s a sad thing when I often see good science bashed here at FR because of junk science.
: )
I am just finishing a book I have enjoyed more than any other in years: The Black Swan.
One of my favorite passages:
One needs to exit doubt in order to produce science - but few people heed the importance of not exiting from it prematurely
it is a fact that one usually exits doubt without realizing it.
That, incidentally, describes James Hansen precisely.
Global Warming / Scientific Fraud bump for later........
Absolutely a great book and particularly damaging to the left because it is written by one of their own who had some integrity and saw that the the political movement hijacked the science and intentionally distorted it to support their frivilous arguments.
As I perused this (rather short) thread, I have arrived at a new theorem, as follows:
With respect to science, funding corrupts; government funding corrupts absolutely.
Science had degenerated into a pursuit of grants instead of truth, and a sinecure for those engaging in mindless - and worthless - speculation instead of discovery of fundamental principles.
Witness the sad, so-called “scientific” claque bowing at the altar of Al Gore, who could hardly be LESS qualified in the science he propounds.
And witness also the funding - so far, at least, not federal, thanks to President George Bush - poured down the rat-hole of embryonic stem-cell research with absolutely no positve results. Meanwhile, research on stem cells from other than human embryos labor in the shadows, producing hundreds of therapeutic methods and thousands of SUCCESSFUL treatments and cures, but ignored by both the funding and the science communities.
The scientific method has been overwhelmed and subsumed by the political method, and big science has become just another political party, infested with the same inflated egos, with the same god complex.
I too enjoyed “The Black Swan” but I found that it needed to be taken in small bites, to allow time to reflect on it. Our local Mensa book club chose it as one of our monthly selections last year, but few had completed it before the meeting.
Agreed
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