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This WSJ Opinion Extra article falls in line with a couple of articles I've read over the last year.
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[ EvilTyrant – The Completely Evil Blog ]
This WSJ Opinion Extra article falls in line with a couple of articles I've read over the last year.
April 13th, 2006
I really can’t question the opinion piece in a meaningful way save that he does nothing to explain the decline of ice shelves and tundra occurring at and near our poles. It is perhaps outside the perview of his piece. I completely agree with him regarding pressures put upon politicians, scientists, and others concerned with gaining funding for research. I think reducing gaseous & particulate emissions is a great thing, but using scare tactics & bullying seems wrong as methodology. As a part-time cynic, I’ll grant you that these tactics are often the only ones that motivate people to pressure their leaders “to do something”. That is a sad testament, in my view.
April 13th, 2006
I do not think his point is to try to say that the globe is not warming. I believe his article is more centered around lack of scientific debate regarding causality in the splashy studies and reports, and the change in scientific communities after the discovery that there is a free funding lunch for all if you can incite panic in the non-questioning public. Having seen firsthand how the scientific funding circus is often run (and being a reasonably good estimator of human motivation) I can see where funding rewards magnify bad behavior.
I too support reducing our impact on the planet, and I also agree that fear-mongering is bad. I also believe that our reaction and what we require our government to do to support impact reduction should be proportional to risk and cost/benefit analysis.
Additional musings I have revolve around how the general populace is inadequately trained in the “scientific menthod” to make any rational decision regarding the issues, and are not sufficiently sceptical to prevent a over sensationalized media from manipulating their views in exchange for higher ratings…
Just Thoughts…
April 13th, 2006
I agree. My mentioning of melting ice and subsequent rising in ocean levels relates to my own curiosity about them.