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I just finished reading an excellent book by a Lefty, someone who was a science advisor in the Obama Administration, Steven Koonin. The book is “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters”.

I found it fascinating, that a Lefty would write a book like this. What is really hilarious yet completely revealing is the attacks from the Left since he wrote it.

He believes (as I do) that climate is changing, likely warming at this time, and that of the things that are causing it, there are components attributable to Man. Where he parts ways with the Climate Alarmists is in how much Man contributes, and what should be done to address that component.

I wondered “How could someone go to work for Leftists and be this reasonable?”

It didn’t fit.

And then he mentioned how he had been a student of Richard Feynman and greatly respected him, then it made all the sense in the world.

If Richard Feynman were alive today, I have little doubt he would be just as skeptical about climate science, and a large part of that skepticism would be for the same reasons that Steven Koonin is skeptical...the drive to declare the science “settled” without the underlying scientific rigor to do so. Having read Richard Feynman’s famous CalTech Commencement address “Cargo Cult Science”, it all made complete sense. (I will post it in this thread for anyone interested in reading it-it is worth it, even though it will take up some room.)

Koonin describes in his book how attacks on scientists who disagree with the conclusions and remedies of Anthropogenic (man caused) Climate Change generally involve statements like “cherry picking data, muddying the waters surrounding the science of climate change, and having no experience in climate science”, which is exactly what that Wikipedia entry on him revealingly states. Of course, many of the people attacking him have no experience in “climate science” either, but that doesn’t seem to slow them down.

Koonin scathingly describes the use of “climate models” because he has a lot of experience in the use of scientific modeling, and he factually points out that he has a lot of experience in all aspects of them and understands their pitfalls, and his go to quote is by George Box: “”All models are wrong, but some are useful”. That seems quite accurate to me. Koonin spends a good deal of time on his criticisms of climate models and how they are dishonestly used in driving public opinion.

In it, he mentions how the Climate Alarmists refuse to do a “Red-Blue” exercise on “climate change”, something he thinks, as a scientist, is critical to the truth.

A “red-blue” exercise, borrowed from military lexicon, is the act of setting up a team of scientists to deliberately poke holes in a scientific theory or theories so it can be seen how well they hold up to scientific rigor, and to find issues that can be examined and addressed.

Seems like a healthy part of “Science”. After all, no science is “settled”, only that it holds up to the latest and most modern scientific examination. That’s “Science” after all...constant doubt, reflection, and reexamination. Even something like Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation may be reexamined in the light of new discoveries and technologies.

And Newton wouldn’t have any problem with it. He would welcome it, no doubt.

But Leftists don’t want to do it, publicly or privately...for obvious reasons. Because it would involve baldly stating their assertions outright, and listing for all to see what is honestly wrong with them. Which means everyone “who isn’t paying attention” would see “all of them”. And they cannot countenance that.

People who ARE paying attention DO see the problems in varying degrees, and it is far easier for the Left to attack them, destroy them, ridicule them, muzzle them, shout them down, marginalize them, and ignore them. They attempt to have anyone who disagrees with them removed and banished, losing their livelihoods and reputations in the process.

So, they will expend all this energy on a constant an ongoing basis 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to censor, ridicule, and attack those who ridicule them, but won’t engage in a valid Red-Blue exercise. I find that very telling. On one hand, they could simply be lazy, but I don’t think that is it. After all, they expend a huge amount of time and energy in ad hominem attacks and attempts to have people muzzled or fired for disagreeing. The conclusion is obvious.

I read the book because I wanted to see what a Leftist scientist might have to say about the criticisms of “climate science”. What I found out is that he is someone with principles.

I often say that Leftists are Leftists before they are scientists. Leftists are also Leftists before they are plumbers, athletes, actors, teachers, elected officials, clergy, even husbands or wives, you name it. Leftism pretty much trumps everything else to Leftists.

In the case of Steven Koonin, I realized that even though he worked for some of the most heinous Leftists ever to hold office, he could not be a Leftist. I don’t agree with him on everything, heck, I don’t agree with anyone on everything. But I sure did come to respect him in the reading of his book.

Because, it turns out, he is a Scientist before he is a Leftist. And his book reveals that. And I respect him greatly for that.