A questioning attitude, an insistence upon proofs that can replicated, upon data that can be tested are hallmarks of true science. Man-made global warming is based upon little other than computer models that can deal with only a small number of the interrelated factors that determine climate.
Supporters of the Al Gore hypothesis of man-made global warming resort to power tactics intended to stop debate. This is scientism, not science.
The TCS Daily website article titled I Want to Demand This Freedom for Future Generations documents some of those strong-arm tactics. It begins with a quotation from Richard Feynman, the 1965 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics for his work of quantum electrodynamics:
Scientists… are used to dealing with doubt and uncertainty. All scientific knowledge is uncertain. This experience with doubt and uncertainty is important. I believe that it is of very great value, and one that extends beyond the sciences. I believe that to solve any problem that has never been solved before, you have to leave the door to the unknown ajar. You have to permit the possibility that you do not have it exactly right. Otherwise, if you have made up your mind already, you might not solve it.
With the recent publication of the IPCC report’s summary (written by politicians, not scientists), Congress seems poised to pursue extreme measures such as the Koyoto Protocols demanded by “greenhouse gas” true believers. But the dogmatic certainty projected by Mr. Gore’s sympathizers doesn’t even come close to the scientific respect for uncertainty postulated by Professor Feynman.
There are many discrepancies between the predictions based on the “greenhouse gas” hypothesis and historical experience, both recent and over eons past. Moreover, while some parts of the globe have become warmer in recent years, other parts have become much colder. For example, the Danish meteorologists who have the most extensive data base of observations of glaciers in Greenland, tell us that while some glaciers may be calving at a faster rate, the inland snowfall that feeds the glaciers is running at a faster rate than normal. There are similar discrepancies in the polar ice caps and elsewhere.
All of which is to say that what is needed is a free and open discussion based on verifiable evidence. So far the public have been given little other than one-sided, self-interestd propaganda from the left-wing press, which ardently promotes any cause that might lead to a one-world government of socialistic regulation by elite councils.
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