Sunday, September 9, 2007

Some global warming commentary

Ran across this at the DailyKOS.com and I have to say I'm a bit stunned. The article itself is about some papers concerning global warming and the supposed consensus among scientists, however, the arguments presented is almost a cut and paste of what anti-global warming people have been saying for years, that the discussion is more politics then science. Check this out:

The underlying attitude exhibited by Morano is that anything that bolsters his side is treated like gospel, like a revelation direct from God, not something that needs to be critically examined. At the same time, anything that bolsters the other side is inherently suspect, not just by the normal standards that require careful checking of any claim, but in terms of a pre-determined double standard which sees them as inherently dishonest and up to no good.
This argument seems so familiar..... also:
Indeed, Morano goes on to quote a scientist working at the American Enterprise Institute who talks about overturning the "political pretext for the energy-restriction policies." The mechanism of projection at work here is easily spotted: those who politicize absolutely everything accuse anyone who stands in their way of polititicizing absolutely everything.
Wow, if you didn't know what side of the argument was being presented here, you could easily mistake this for an anti-global warming polemic.
And further still:

If there were a serious debate about global warming, anyone using such transparently dishonest arguments would be summarily dismissed. In a serious debate, people are penalized for making bad arguments—it reflects poorly on their overall judgement, not to mention their honesty and integrity. But there is no serious debate about global warming. There is simply an effort to obfuscate and confuse. Which means throwing anything that sounds bad or distracts into the mix.

Which is why long lists of items that don’t stand up to scrutiny are such an appealing ruse.


Yea, i couldn't agree more, however, lets not forget to apply this equally to both sides. Those sceptical of global warming have been saying exactly this sort of thing for years. I guess it matters more if its used against you then in the abstract. In my opinion, the "science" of global warming is more like politics then real science.

Saturday, September 8, 2007

So Ive been hung up on names for weeks now, ever sense i started this blog, really. Is reasoned responses a good name? What if I'm not reasonable? Do I just have to respond to others? So I haven't posted anything as I tried to think of a new name. To hell with it, its just a name.