IF YR NOT ARGUING, IT’S NOT SCIENCE
Nov. 28th, 2009 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogI hadn’t planned on coming back to the Climate Change Email Hack, as I’d considered the matter basically closed. Granted, the “Global Warming Is A Big Conspiracy For No Good Reason Except Al Gore Is Evil” crowd will never let it go. But I figure that’s their problem.
But seeing as how Congressional Republicans have decided to probe the email hack to find out how much these scientists contributed to a widely cited UN report on climate change on which Obama bases his policies (see what they did there?), the story is going to have a lot more legs – and it’s going to be argued and played out on national television mainly by people who know dick about science and the science community.
So I thought I’d better pass on this nice piece from a PhD biologist adding some context to the whole “scientists arguing = no consensus on global warming = HOAX!” meme.
ABSTRACT
Too bad politics doesn't work the same way. Not these days, anyway.
Yes, I know. This won’t make a scrap of difference in the “probe”, and will make even less of a difference in the cable TV news arena.
But that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be just as uninformed.
Queen of de Nile,
This is dF
But seeing as how Congressional Republicans have decided to probe the email hack to find out how much these scientists contributed to a widely cited UN report on climate change on which Obama bases his policies (see what they did there?), the story is going to have a lot more legs – and it’s going to be argued and played out on national television mainly by people who know dick about science and the science community.
So I thought I’d better pass on this nice piece from a PhD biologist adding some context to the whole “scientists arguing = no consensus on global warming = HOAX!” meme.
ABSTRACT
Science doesn’t work despite scientists being asses. Science works, to at least some extent, because scientists are asses. Bickering and backstabbing are essential elements of the process. Haven’t any of these guys ever heard of “peer review”?
Science is so powerful that it drags us kicking and screaming towards the truth despite our best efforts to avoid it. And it does that at least partly fueled by our pettiness and our rivalries.
Science is so powerful that it drags us kicking and screaming towards the truth despite our best efforts to avoid it. And it does that at least partly fueled by our pettiness and our rivalries.
Too bad politics doesn't work the same way. Not these days, anyway.
Yes, I know. This won’t make a scrap of difference in the “probe”, and will make even less of a difference in the cable TV news arena.
But that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be just as uninformed.
Queen of de Nile,
This is dF
