Beyond debate? (global warming)

Times Higher Education ^ | Martin Cohen

[ventanax5]

Is belief in global-warming science another example of the "madness of crowds"? That strange but powerful social phenomenon, first described by Charles Mackay in 1841, turns a widely shared prejudice into an irresistible "authority". Could it indeed represent the final triumph of irrationality? After all, how rational is it to pass laws banning one kind of light bulb (and insisting on their replacement by ones filled with poisonous mercury vapour) in order to "save electricity", while ploughing money into schemes to run cars on ... electricity? How rational is it to pay the Russians once for fossil fuels, and a second time for permission (via carbon credits) to burn them (see box page 36)? And how rational is it to suppose that the effects of increased CO2 in the atmosphere take between 200 and 1,000 years to be felt, but that solutions can take effect almost instantaneously?

Whether rational or not, global warming theory has become a political orthodoxy. So entrenched is it that those showing any resistance to it are described as "heretics" or even likened to "Holocaust deniers".

[steelyourfaith]

Google website asks: Is google censoring ClimateGate?

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[mreerm]

i’m seeing 2 changes on Google since yesterday regarding climategate.

1 - the link which showed up yesterday “Explore impact of climate change on Google Earth” is GONE

2 - Google auto-suggest now shows both “climategate” and “climate gate”!

[goodnesswins]

YES....I’ve been thinking a lot about the TULIPMANIA of past eons lately....that’s what the GW crap seems to be!

[Carry_Okie]

It is rare that I see a multidisciplinary article such as this, where the author is cognizant of both social and technical sciences.

Outstanding analysis.

[oyez]

We must do something or suffer the consequences.(even if it is wrong)

[muir_redwoods]

AGW is the phrenology of the 21st century

[GeronL]

Its a religion and Al Gore is a chief Monk. They need to open monastaries and wear robes.

[CedarDave]

It is rare that I see a multidisciplinary article such as this, where the author is cognizant of both social and technical sciences. Outstanding analysis.

Concur, 100%. It will take some time to read it all, but I am printing it off for further study.

Another British newspaper has this story, also very much worth reading as it explains to the layperson the relationship of tree rings and other items to the CRU-IPCC results including mixing data like apples and oranges to come out with the desired global warming conclusion.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Climate change emails row deepens

[Red Dog #1]

A classic example of “Spiral of Silence” concept.

http://www.cw.utwente.nl/theorieenoverzicht/Theory%20clusters/Mass%20Media/spiral_of_silence.doc/

[combat_boots]

"The Tulip period or Tulip era (Ottoman Turkish: لاله دورى, Turkish: Lâle Devri) is a period in Ottoman history from 1718 to the rebellion of Patrona Halil in 1730. This was a relatively peaceful period, during which the Ottoman Empire can be said to have begun to orient itself towards Europe.

The name of the period derives from the tulip craze among the Ottoman court society. Cultivating this culturally ambiguous emblem had become a celebrated practice.[1] The tulip period illustrated the conflicts brought by early modern consumer culture and was a shared material symbolism. During this period the elite and high-class society of the Ottoman Period had established an immense fondness for the tulip, which were utilized in various occasions. Tulips defined nobility and privilege, both in terms of goods and leisure time."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_period

The Ottomans used to have turtles with candles stuck on their backs walk through the tulip gardens at Topkapi Palace. At sunset & on into the night. This was a decadent period, no?

[mosesdapoet]

Along with other assumptions made by global warmists..The problem with political discussions on GW is that they steer away from challanging the basic pseudo scientific assumption it is created from . CO2 reaction to light in the infa-red spectrum causing the “Venus effect” because some feel it is too technical . While technical the infamous “hockey stick assumption” is explained in a link in this 07 reposted atticle in
http://www.theusmat.com/

[maryz]

This is a great article (including all the incidental information!) — thanks for posting!

[GOPJ]

This one’s a keeper - great post, ventanax5.

[GOPJ]

The scientists apparently "cherry-picking" and hiding their data revealed recently in the University of East Anglia email scandal are only following in a long tradition that includes even Galileo "cheating" by saying that the Earth must orbit round the Sun - in a perfect circle. Yet, surely most objectionable of all is the use of gullibility and fear as tactics in campaigns. And if fear requires a world of zero risk, that certainly won't include those mercury-filled light bulbs and nuclear power stations.

Today, global-warming "deniers" have all been told they must fall into line with "the science". But this is not science, this is propaganda. And we are not being asked to be more rational but to suspend our own judgment completely. That, not "runaway climate change", is the most dangerous threat to the world today.

more from Martin Cohen - editor of "the Philosopher"...

-

http://climaterealists.com/?id=4617

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***AGW is the phrenology of the 21st century***

Just like this was to the 18th century.

[SunkenCiv]

...how rational is it to pass laws banning one kind of light bulb (and insisting on their replacement by ones filled with poisonous mercury vapour) in order to "save electricity", while ploughing money into schemes to run cars on ... electricity? How rational is it to pay the Russians once for fossil fuels, and a second time for permission (via carbon credits) to burn them? And how rational is it to suppose that the effects of increased CO2 in the atmosphere take between 200 and 1,000 years to be felt, but that solutions can take effect almost instantaneously?

Thanks ventanax5!