Mar 03 2008

Stay out of the Climate Change discussion because we aren’t qualified?

Posted by Neocon in Academia, Economy, Super Scary Global Warming

I posted a comment to the same effect over at Patterico’s on the original post, but I’ll expand on it here. Patterico links to Rick Moran on the Global Warming debate.

I’m no scientist. Neither is Nobel Prize winning global warming alarmist and hypocrite Al Gore. Nor are the legions of global warming deniers who are pointing to a stretch of cold weather as “proof” that global warming is a myth.

We are, most of us, not qualified in any way, shape, or form to make any kind of technical or scientific judgment on most of the evidence relating to climate change unless we happen to hold an advanced technical degree and are able to examine that evidence in its totality and not pick and choose headlines that bolster one’s political position on the issue.

The idiocy inherent in the prospect of myself or 95% of internet commenters – right and left – trying to hold a scientific debate on a subject where almost all of us are not scientists and where most of the evidence is couched in the arcane and mysterious language of scientific disciplines for which the overwhelming majority of us barely realize the parameters of study is self evident.

Not that this matters because at bottom, we who are unable to examine the evidence on the same plane as climatologists, meteorologists, atmospheric physicists, environmental scientists, and a hodgepodge of chemists, archaeologists, anthropologists, and other scientists end up simply believing one side or the other. Like religious fanatics, the two sides argue dogma while rejecting the other’s “beliefs” as apostasy.

Considering the stakes, this is madness.

If everyone were to only stick to subjects where they hold a PhD, there would be no blogosphere. There would be no voters or opinions either given that the overwhelming majority of voters don’t hold concurrent degrees in economics, political science, environmental studies, international relations, mathematics, etc.

The fact is that there is no definitive proof of anthropogenic global warming, and the vast majority of ‘political solutions’, which are being offered by the left, would be catastrophic to our economy while exempting some of the worst (and completely unapologetic) polluters of the world. There is no call for scientists to only debate the issue from the other side- nor do I trust the scientific community to remain objective when I constantly hear that this is a ‘moral issue’.

It makes no sense to me that I should be sitting this one out because I didn’t choose to get a PhD in climate study when the people who want to enact massive change based on their political beliefs have no intention of doing the same. As Ed said, they’re the ones trying to use their beliefs, not objective scientific fact, to create great upheaval. My involvement as someone who hasn’t been convinced about anthropogenic global warming has no negative impact insofar as unwarranted policy creation is concerned.

I’m not against more study; I’m for it. Every person I know who isn’t convinced of anthropogenic global warming also supports further research, which is more than I can say for the most vocal proponents of the theory. However, I am against the idea that we need to be scolding people who question the view that man is dooming the planet, which is the prevailing way that Global Warming is being presented as political issue. Rick correctly points out that many scientists aren’t making these bombastic predictions like Al Gore. Indeed, the latest polling shows that people who actually understand it (and believe/disbelieve it) aren’t nearly as concerned as those who don’t.

To what degree of a crisis most scientists see global warming is, for the most part, irrelevant at this point. We are no longer discussing scientific fact, but debating what is being touted as religious prophecy. That is alarmism. To sum it up, equating those who point out ironically that events on the ground aren’t bearing out the hysteria to those who are stoking the fires of mass panic is really counterproductive if you’re after further research or the truth.