Posted on 06/22/2015 9:01:03 AM PDT by markomalley
A December 18, 2009 Washington Post poll, released on the final day of the ill-fated Copenhagen climate summit, reported “four in ten Americans now saying that they place little or no trust in what scientists have to say about the environment.” This was the month the tide turned in public perceptions of climate change. Several recent polls have found “climate change” skepticism rising faster than sea levels on Planet Algore (not to be confused with Planet Earth, where sea levels remain relatively stable).
Many of the doubt-inducing climate scientists and their media acolytes attribute this rising skepticism to the stupidity of Americans, philistines unable to appreciate that there is “a scientific consensus on climate change.” One of the benefits of the 2009 Climategate scandal, which revealed leading climate scientists manipulating data, methods and peer review to exaggerate the evidence of significant global warming, may be to permanently deflate the rhetorical value of the phrase “scientific consensus.”
But since Pope Francis has invoked a scientific “consensus” in his new encyclical, Laudato Si, it may be time to revisit this issue.
Even without the 2009 scandal, the very idea of scientific consensus should give us pause. “Consensus,” according to Merriam-Webster, means both “general agreement” and “group solidarity in sentiment and belief.” That pretty much sums up the dilemma. We want to know whether a scientific consensus is based on solid evidence and sound reasoning, or social pressure and groupthink.
Anyone who has studied the history of science knows that scientists are not immune to the non-rational dynamics of the herd. Many false ideas enjoyed consensus opinion at one time. Indeed, the “power of the paradigm” often shapes the thinking of scientists so strongly that they become unable to accurately summarize, let alone evaluate, radical alternatives. Question the paradigm, and some respond with dogmatic fanaticism.
We shouldn’t, of course, forget the other side of the coin. There are always cranks and conspiracy theorists. No matter how well founded a scientific consensus, there’s someone somewhere — easily accessible online — who thinks it’s all hokum. Sometimes these folks turn out to be right. But often, they’re just cranks whose counsel is best disregarded.
So what’s a non-scientist citizen, without the time to study the scientific details, to do? How is the ordinary citizen to distinguish, as Andrew Coyne puts it, “between genuine authority and mere received wisdom? Conversely, how do we tell crankish imperviousness to evidence from legitimate skepticism?” Are we obligated to trust whatever we’re told is based on a scientific consensus unless we can study the science ourselves? When can you doubt a consensus? When should you doubt it?
Your best bet is to look at the process that produced, maintains and communicates the ostensible consensus. I don’t know of any exhaustive list of signs of suspicion, but, using climate change as a test study, I propose this checklist as a rough-and-ready list of signs for when to consider doubting a scientific “consensus,” whatever the subject. One of these signs may be enough to give pause. If they start to pile up, then it’s wise to be suspicious.
(1) When different claims get bundled together
Usually, in scientific disputes, there is more than one claim at issue. With global warming, there’s the claim that our planet, on average, is getting warmer. There’s also the claim that human emissions are the main cause of it, that it’s going to be catastrophic, and that we have to transform civilization to deal with it. These are all different assertions with different bases of evidence. Evidence for warming, for instance, isn’t evidence for the cause of that warming. All the polar bears could drown, the glaciers melt, the sea levels rise 20 feet and Newfoundland become a popular place to tan, and that wouldn’t tell us a thing about what caused the warming. This is a matter of logic, not scientific evidence. The effect is not the same as the cause.
There’s a lot more agreement about (1) a modest warming trend since about 1850 than there is about (2) the cause of that trend. There’s even less agreement about (3) the dangers of that trend, or of (4) what to do about it. But these four propositions are frequently bundled together, so that if you doubt one, you’re labeled a climate change “skeptic” or “denier.” That’s just plain intellectually dishonest. When well-established claims are fused with separate, more controversial claims, and the entire conglomeration is covered with the label “consensus,” you have reason for doubt.
(2) When ad hominem attacks against dissenters predominate
Personal attacks are common in any dispute simply because we’re human. It’s easier to insult than to the follow the thread of an argument. And just because someone makes an ad hominem argument, it doesn’t mean that their conclusion is wrong. But when the personal attacks are the first out of the gate, and when they seem to be growing in intensity and frequency, don your skeptic’s cap and look more closely at the evidence.
When it comes to climate change, ad hominems are all but ubiquitous. They are even smuggled into the way the debate is described. The common label “denier” is one example. Without actually making the argument, this label is supposed to call to mind the assertion of the “great climate scientist” Ellen Goodman: “I would like to say we’re at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let’s just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers.”
There’s an old legal proverb: If you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. If you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you have neither, attack the witness. When proponents of a scientific consensus lead with an attack on the witness, rather than on the arguments and evidence, be suspicious.
(3) When scientists are pressured to toe the party line
The famous Lysenko affair in the former Soviet Union is often cited as an example of politics trumping good science. It’s a good example, but it’s often used to imply that such a thing could only happen in a totalitarian culture, that is, when all-powerful elites can control the flow of information. But this misses the almost equally powerful conspiracy of agreement, in which interlocking assumptions and interests combine to give the appearance of objectivity where none exists. For propaganda purposes, this voluntary conspiracy is even more powerful than a literal conspiracy by a dictatorial power, precisely because it looks like people have come to their position by a fair and independent evaluation of the evidence.
Tenure, job promotions, government grants, media accolades, social respectability, Wikipedia entries, and vanity can do what gulags do, only more subtly. Alexis de Tocqueville warned of the power of the majority in American society to erect “formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.” He could have been writing about climate science.
Climategate and the dishonorable response to its revelations by some official scientific bodies show that scientists are under pressure to toe the orthodox party line on climate change and receive many benefits for doing so. That’s another reason for suspicion.
(4) When publishing and peer review in the discipline is cliquish
Though it has its limits, the peer-review process is meant to provide checks and balances, to weed out bad and misleading work, and to bring some measure of objectivity to scientific research. At its best, it can do that. But when the same few people review and approve each other’s work, you invariably get conflicts of interest. This weakens the case for the supposed consensus, and becomes, instead, another reason to be suspicious. Nerds who follow the climate debate blogosphere have known for years about the cliquish nature of publishing and peer review in climate science (see here, for example).
(5) When dissenting opinions are excluded from the relevant peer-reviewed literature not because of weak evidence or bad arguments but as part of a strategy to marginalize dissent
Besides mere cliquishness, the “peer review” process in climate science has, in some cases, been consciously, deliberately subverted to prevent dissenting views from being published. Again, denizens of the climate blogosphere have known about these problems for years, but Climategate revealed some of the gory details for the broader public. And again, this gives the lay public a reason to doubt the consensus.
(6) When the actual peer-reviewed literature is misrepresented
Because of the rhetorical force of the idea of peer review, there’s the temptation to misrepresent it. We’ve been told for years that the peer-reviewed literature is virtually unanimous in its support for human-induced climate change. In Science, Naomi Oreskes even produced a “study” of the relevant literature supposedly showing “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change.” In fact, there are plenty of dissenting papers in the literature, and this despite mounting evidence that the peer-review deck was stacked against them. The Climategate scandal also underscored this: The climate scientists at the center of the controversy complained in their emails about dissenting papers that managed to survive the peer-review booby traps they helped maintain, and fantasized about torpedoing a respected climate science journal with the temerity to publish a dissenting article.
(7) When consensus is declared hurriedly or before it even exists
A well-rooted scientific consensus, like a mature oak, usually needs time to emerge. Scientists around the world have to do research, publish articles, read about other research, repeat experiments (where possible), have open debates, make their data and methods available, evaluate arguments, look at the trends, and so forth, before they eventually come to agreement. When scientists rush to declare a consensus, particularly when they claim a consensus that has yet to form, this should give any reasonable person pause.
In 1992, former Vice President Al Gore reassured his listeners, “Only an insignificant fraction of scientists deny the global warming crisis. The time for debate is over. The science is settled.” In the real 1992, however, Gallup “reported that 53% of scientists actively involved in global climate research did not believe global warming had occurred; 30% weren’t sure; and only 17% believed global warming had begun. Even a Greenpeace poll showed 47% of climatologists didn’t think a runaway greenhouse effect was imminent; only 36% thought it possible and a mere 13% thought it probable.” Seventeen years later, in 2009, Gore apparently determined that he needed to revise his own revisionist history, asserting that the scientific debate over human-induced climate change had raged until as late as 1999, but now there was true consensus. Of course, 2009 is when Climategate broke, reminding us that what had smelled funny before might indeed be a little rotten.
(8) When the subject matter seems, by its nature, to resist consensus
It makes sense that chemists over time may come to unanimous conclusions about the results of some chemical reaction, since they can replicate the results over and over in their own labs. They can see the connection between the conditions and its effects. It’s easily testable. But many of the things under consideration in climate science are not like that. The evidence is scattered and hard to keep track of; it’s often indirect, imbedded in history and requiring all sorts of assumptions. You can’t rerun past climate to test it, as you can with chemistry experiments. And the headline-grabbing conclusions of climate scientists are based on complex computer models that climate scientists themselves concede do not accurately model the underlying reality, and receive their input, not from the data, but from the scientists interpreting the data. This isn’t the sort of scientific endeavor on which a wide, well-established consensus is easily rendered. In fact, if there really were a consensus on all the various claims surrounding climate science, that would be really suspicious. A fortiori, the claim of consensus is a bit suspicious as well.
(9) When “scientists say” or “science says” is a common locution
In Newsweek’s April 28, 1975, issue, science editor Peter Gwynne claimed that “scientists are almost unanimous” that global cooling was underway. Now we are told, “Scientists say global warming will lead to the extinction of plant and animal species, the flooding of coastal areas from rising seas, more extreme weather, more drought and diseases spreading more widely.” “Scientists say” is hopelessly ambiguous. Your mind should immediately wonder: “Which ones?”
Other times this vague company of scientists becomes “SCIENCE,” as when we’re told “what science says is required to avoid catastrophic climate change.” “Science says” is an inherently weasely claim. “Science,” after all, is an abstract noun. It can’t say anything. Whenever you see that locution used to imply a consensus, it should trigger your baloney detector.
(10) When it is being used to justify dramatic political or economic policies
Imagine hundreds of world leaders and nongovernmental organizations, science groups, and United Nations functionaries gathered for a meeting heralded as the most important conference since World War II, in which “the future of the world is being decided.” These officials seem to agree that institutions of “global governance” need to be established to reorder the world economy and massively restrict energy resources. Large numbers of them applaud wildly when socialist dictators denounce capitalism. Strange philosophical and metaphysical activism surrounds the gathering. And we are told by our president that all of this is based, not on fiction, but on science — that is, a scientific consensus that human activities, particularly greenhouse gas emissions, are leading to catastrophic climate change.
We don’t have to imagine that scenario, of course. It happened in Copenhagen, in December 2009. It will happen again in Paris, in December 2015.
Now, none of this disproves the hypothesis of catastrophic, human induced climate change. But it does describe an atmosphere that would be highly conducive to misrepresentation. And at the very least, when policy consequences, which claim to be based on science, are so profound, the evidence ought to be rock solid. “Extraordinary claims,” the late Carl Sagan often said, “require extraordinary evidence.” When the megaphones of consensus insist that there’s no time, that we have to move, MOVE, MOVE!, you have a right to be suspicious.
(11) When the “consensus” is maintained by an army of water-carrying journalists who defend it with uncritical and partisan zeal, and seem intent on helping certain scientists with their messaging rather than reporting on the field as objectively as possible Do I really need to elaborate on this point?
(12) When we keep being told that there’s a scientific consensus
A scientific consensus should be based on scientific evidence. But a consensus is not itself the evidence. And with really well-established scientific theories, you never hear about consensus. No one talks about the consensus that the planets orbit the sun, that the hydrogen molecule is lighter than the oxygen molecule, that salt is sodium chloride, that light travels about 186,000 miles per second in a vacuum, that bacteria sometimes cause illness, or that blood carries oxygen to our organs. The very fact that we hear so much about a consensus on catastrophic, human-induced climate change is perhaps enough by itself to justify suspicion.
To adapt that old legal aphorism, when you’ve got decisive scientific evidence on your side, you argue the evidence. When you’ve got great arguments, you make the arguments. When you don’t have decisive evidence or great arguments, you claim consensus.
Scientists cannot even agree if Pluto is a planet or not, much less many other things.
My favorite: the 1984 Consensus Conference on Cholesterol.
Arguably the single greatest mistake in the history of the human race.
“When to Doubt a Scientific Consensus”
All the time. Each and every time a ‘consensus’ is reached in the scientific community.
I could make a list of past ‘agreements’ which turned out to be bogus but the list would be too long.
Whenever government and other presumptively anti-rights (REAL, "negative" rights) organizations have enough money to pay for the result they want and are manned by people thuggish enough to intimidate the "scientists".....Oh, wait.....
I greatly agree with the article and author but this phrasing is infelicitous. In 1992 Al Gore was a US Senator in the middle of a campaign that made him Vice President in 1993 to 2001 (Inauguration Day). I know it is pedantic but I hope someone would advise the author to replace the anachronistic 'former' with the chronologically accurate 'future' in this quote. Sand in my shorts kind of thing!
Interesting to understand that...
Archeologists have uncovered mineral-replacement formations that look like bone-structures of reptiles from ages ago [AKA: Fossil remains].
A ^consensus of scientists^ (yea, even a “plurality of scientists”) agree that these rock formations are evidence of prehistoric reptilian domination [or, at least /extensive reptilian population/] of the Earth.
IF, today, we discount a modern “consensus” of CACA* (*see my tagline) while supporting the [so-called] “consensus” for pre-historic reptilian domination, do we not shoot ourselves on the foot for our arguments?
IOW, it appears that the liberal-left has us over-a-barrel? Yes? No?
Good discussion regarding CONSENSUS-Climate Change vs CONSENSUS-Fossil Evidence could develop.
Perhaps the best and most coolly reasoned article I’ve seen on the subject.
In 2005, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren were awarded the Nobel prize in Physiology.
Glowbull Warming science, which was invented about 1990, is the only science in the world that has a consensus. Pretty amazing for one of the newest sciences there is.
I’m skeptical of any “science” that can’t be tested. All science disciplines are not equal. Physics and chemistry experiments can be tested and replicated by any scientist in the field - the goal being to *disprove* a hypothesis. If you can’t disprove the hypothesis then you increase the confidence in the theory.
However, not being able to disprove a hypothesis doesn’t make something “scientific fact” - a term thrown around incorrectly, it just means we’re closer to being correct.
So when it comes to other scientific disciplines you have different levels of testability. This is true for both medical science and climate science. The less you can test (and replicate) the less confidence you can have in a theory. Medical science is shown to be wrong quite frequently, it takes years of testing to bring a new drug or procedure to market. Even when available it’s common for something to be revoked due to new evidence emerging when used on a mass scale. As we don’t understand much about the human body the science is often driven by statistical comparison against a placebo. It is less testable than physics or chemistry so the long term effects aren’t known.
The same goes for climate science, except that it is even less testable than medical science. You’d need a 2nd identical earth to test a unified theory to really be sure of the science. As we don’t have this we’re left with nothing more than a bunch of theories put together in “computer models” that make future predictions. While there is science in the individual experiments that contribute to theories we can’t test an aggregate unifying theory (and correctly predict the effects of changing certain variables). As the computer models do not match reality, along with all past predictions being wrong, you can’t say that current theories are true. They’re still ONLY theories. That FACT that there’s dozens of computer models also points out that there’s wide disagreement on many issues.
This is what makes climate science a trump card for politicians. They fund much of the research and can, therefore, influence the outcome. We don’t have “Intergovernmental Panel on Physics” but we do for climate change - I should emphasize the word *intergovernmental* because it guarantees politics, which is not science. Science is all about questioning theories, as soon as you’re not allowed to then you’re dealing with politics - not science.
If theory is considered to be true then you should be able to easily PROVE it. With climate science they can’t prove anything yet want us to accept their conclusions with as much confidence as knowledge in physics and chemistry. Sorry...not going to happen.
Most of what I know as 'settled science' is almost purely empirical, and more on the line of proof of concept rather than demonstration of theory. Example of the above is the requirement of oxygen for animal life. Place an animal in a sealed enclosure and when the oxygen runs out, the animal dies. The theory as to why and use of red corpuscles and everything behind the death is the theory but the empirical proof is endlessly repeatable. Any liberal mouth-breathers care to volunteer to prove me wrong?
Beyond this in terms of real demonstrated accepted science, it is almost never considered to be 'settled' but rather constantly subject to clarification and revision. Take as an example what was once called Geology and the development of our world of Earth as we see it now. At one time, this was a rather staid science, viewing the earth as a long-term process of vulcanism, erosion and other very slow processes on the forms of the earth. In the past century so much of this accepted and settled science has been upended that you don't even have the term Geology as a field of science except as folded into a larger context called 'Earth Science' or the like. The old settled ideas could not accommodate things like Plate Tectonics and catastrophic impacts.
Thus use of the term 'settled science' to me is a flashing red light of dogma/belief rather than thesis-antithesis-synthesis process of making better but never complete ideas!
bookmark
Many paleontologists believe that dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than they are to reptiles so there really isn’t consensus there.
(Archeologists study prehistoric peoples and cultures)
regarding the dinosaur/bird evolution, is it not true that the bird end product excludes many dinosaur species that were in fact reptilian?
that is some were bird like but many others were lizard like and reptilian without doubt
Thus demonstrating that there is no “consensus” in paleontology.
More “water cooler” conversation.
I took several Philosophy of Science courses. The Truth (with a capital “T”) is impossible in Science (stated by the professors). All that “science” does is show what “works” and the only truth-—with a small “t”, comes from mathematics and physics which is just an abstraction.
That said-—all theories are just that-—theories, and it is just a matter of time before they are thrown out for a “better” theory. That is the history of science and paradigm shifts are rare-—and mass conformity of worldview of scientists is normal science.
Today’s “science” is pushing pseudo-science and actually promoting Lies and Misinformation (on purpose). All universities and research centers were taken over by Marxists in the 30s and Truth/God is denied in the public square and public schools now (which is unconstitutional in America). PC is a cultural Marxism to control the allowed ideas/worldview. (As Wittgenstein knew-—he who controls the Words will control the perceptions of the masses). That is why we saw the words “wife” and “husband” being destroyed decades ago (for conditioning) for “spouse” and less meaningful terms to destroy marriage and the idea of Roles in males and females (destroy Natural Law)-—to erase Christian concepts-—like they did with “pro-choice” and by making the word “marriage” meaningless by putting the word “homosexual” in front of it. It is an oxymoron but fed to children for 20 years to normalize the concept..
The Reason for the great scientists, like Newton, was a strong belief in God, the Designer of the Universe. Without Design, there is no science possible. And, if there is Design in Nature,which is provable, t only means that there MUST be a Designer-—it is the most Rational.
Bookmark
Science is not consensus, as I constantly tell my students.
"Frankly, there's a lot of museum politics involved in this, a lot of careers committed to a particular point of view even if new scientific evidence raises questions," Ruben said. In some museum displays, he said, the birds-descended-from-dinosaurs evolutionary theory has been portrayed as a largely accepted fact, with an asterisk pointing out in small type that "some scientists disagree."
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