A Perfectly Cromulent Politics Blog
When procrastinating from law school, I write about politics, tech, or whatever else I'm interested in. Feel free to tweet me up (@devinjohnston).
When procrastinating from law school, I write about politics, tech, or whatever else I'm interested in. Feel free to tweet me up (@devinjohnston).
Posted by Devin Johnston on December 4th, 2009
In light of the recent controversy (dubbed "Climategate" by right-wingers and the popular media) surrounding the alleged suppression of data not supporting the theory of anthropogenic global warming by scientists at the Climactic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, it's worth remembering that the scientific community has a very robust system of accountability that prevents junk research from going unchallenged. This is why the suppression of data by a small handful of scientists, if indeed this can be proven true, does not really affect the strength of the argument for anthropogenic climate change. Thousands of independent researchers have been studying climate change for decades. The study of climate is complex and multivariate, and it is unwise to extrapolate from short-term climactic trends. Notwithstanding all of these challenges, there is widespread agreement in the scientific community that global temperature increases are strongly correlated with the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (particularly carbon dioxide).
While "climategate" may seem like an intellectual victory for right wingers, they should be careful not to wet themselves with glee prematurely.
Spread the word and fan the winds of change:
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Bad Optics
Posted by Mark (not verified) on December 4th, 2009.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the public, science, even on scientific issues, is secondary. That's why more than half of all Americans don't accept the theory of evolution.
There have been pretty good debunking of the denier's claims regarding these emails by environmentalists (e.g. Elizabeth May,) sceptics' organizations (Phil Plait, and the James Randi Foundation,) and science journalists such as Chris Mooney. Yet none of that matters, as the denialists have their stooges in the MSM (Lorrie Goldstein, every journalist in Alberta...)
Sadly, this will go down as a propaganda victory for the denialists.
Unfortunately, you may be
Posted by Devin Johnston on December 4th, 2009.
Unfortunately, you may be right.
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