We’re being boiled like frogs! Panic now! I’ll admit to being a skeptic on nearly everything, particularly the more vehemently it is adopted as conventional wisdom. “The Tempest” by Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post attempts to expose a skeptic on the subject of Global Warming.
I’m not sure if Joel’s goal is to expose professor emeritus Bill Gray as a contrarian with his head in the sand, or as a cool-eyed scientist rationally cutting through the noise to the heart of the Global Warming debate. I sense that Joel thought he could give Gray enough rope and let him hang himself as being out of step with the scientific community. If his goal was to rebut Gray’s view by illuminating him as an incongruity, he failed. Gray may be an eccentric, prone to hyperbole, but that doesn’t necessarily discredit his view on warming.
I found the article fascinating. But in its indictment of some of the dysfunctional political and scientific debate, it committed its own form of dysfunction. The ad hominem attack on Gray fails to really address global warming. We have a very superficial understanding of our global climate, yet seem completely willing to jump to outrageous conclusions.
Our government, more specifically the Bush administration, hasn’t helped the situation much. We have an administration that has often enough acted in an unscientific manner. So it stands to reason that when the Bush camp makes pronouncements on scientific issues, the pronouncements are viewed hyper-critically.
As I said above, I’m a skeptic on global warming – perhaps “agnostic” would be more accurate. I have yet to see compelling evidence, but I’m open to the possible existence of global warming. The government should approach this issue with a bit more intellectual rigor and perhaps put all our minds at ease. Let’s expose what data are available, and also have a discussion about the unknown factors. Some governmental actions to mitigate warming influences may be appropriate, but I also remember the warnings of “the next ice age” that I heard in the late 70’s. Let’s not be too eager to panic.
Michael
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