Thursday, April 13, 2006
Power Line Finds a "Climate of Fear"
I had thought about posting on Prof. Lindzen's article, but it's done well in Power Line: "Climate of Fear": "Most people assume that 'science' has proved that the earth is getting significantly, and potentially catastrophically, warmer, and that the reason is human activity, specifically the release of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse' gases. In fact, scientific support for that theory is weak. But it's where the money is: funding for climate research by the U.S. government alone is up more than a billion dollars a year as a result of the alarmism spread by--guess who--the same people, largely, who get the extra billion dollars. There are some contexts in which economic interests make reporters suspicious, and some contexts in which they don't. Why? Beats me. Ask a reporter.
One sinister aspect of the global warming industry is the extent to which it bullies those who employ scientific methods to critique its claims. Richard Lindzen of MIT writes in the Wall Street Journal:
"Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis.
[H]ow is it that we don't have more scientists speaking up about this junk science? It's my belief that many scientists have been cowed not merely by money but by fear.""
That's a good introduction to the problem of "scientists following the money" and reinforces the Crichton "state of fear" theme with scientists being intimidated by fear of professional ostracism. By the way, Richard Lindzen is Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT and responsible for discovering the "Iris" phenomenon which one of nature's ways of balancing global temperature. Lindzen is a top scientist in the field and too senior and accomplished to be intimidated.
Read the full article here and you will get a quick easy lesson in atmospheric science and what scientists really agree on and where there is uncertainty.
One sinister aspect of the global warming industry is the extent to which it bullies those who employ scientific methods to critique its claims. Richard Lindzen of MIT writes in the Wall Street Journal:
"Scientists who dissent from the alarmism have seen their grant funds disappear, their work derided, and themselves libeled as industry stooges, scientific hacks or worse. Consequently, lies about climate change gain credence even when they fly in the face of the science that supposedly is their basis.
[H]ow is it that we don't have more scientists speaking up about this junk science? It's my belief that many scientists have been cowed not merely by money but by fear.""
That's a good introduction to the problem of "scientists following the money" and reinforces the Crichton "state of fear" theme with scientists being intimidated by fear of professional ostracism. By the way, Richard Lindzen is Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT and responsible for discovering the "Iris" phenomenon which one of nature's ways of balancing global temperature. Lindzen is a top scientist in the field and too senior and accomplished to be intimidated.
Read the full article here and you will get a quick easy lesson in atmospheric science and what scientists really agree on and where there is uncertainty.
