Richard Fernanez has some thoughts on AGW and Challenger. I wonder what Dick Feynman would have thought of the current situation? I can guess.
Category Archives: Media Criticism
Take This Paradigm
…and shove it.
Narrow intellectual gatekeeping is omnipresent in academia. Want to know why the government wastes hundreds of millions of dollars on math and science programs that never seem to improve the test scores of American students?[3] Part of the reason for this is that today’s K-12 educators—unlike educators in other high-scoring countries of the world—refuse to acknowledge evidence that memorization plays an important role in mastering mathematics. Any proposed program that supports memorization is deemed to be against “creativity” by today’s intellectual gatekeepers in K-12 education, including those behind the Math and Science Partnerships. As one NSF program director told me: “We hear about success stories with practice and repetition-based programs like Kumon Mathematics. But I’ll be frank with you—you’ll never get anything like that funded. We don’t believe in it.” Instead the intellectual leadership in education encourages enormously expensive pimping programs that put America even further behind the international learning curve.
I hope that Climaquiddick turns out to cause people to question a lot of previously unquestioned institutions and authorities.
The Politicization Of The EPA
Thoughts from an actual scientist at the agency. You know, one who actually believes in science, and that agency actions should be based on it?
[Update a few minutes later]
An open letter to the UN Secretary General, from a long list of scientists and engineers:
Climate change science is in a period of ‘negative discovery’ – the more we learn about this exceptionally complex and rapidly evolving field the more we realize how little we know. Truly, the science is NOT settled.
If the science is “settled” (what an absurd phrase — science is never “settled,” by definition), how can there be so many scientists who disagree that it is settled?
The Real Fat-Cat Party
Thoughts from Jonah Goldberg:
My biggest objection is not to what isn’t true about the claim that the Right is the handmaiden to big business, it’s to what is true. Too many Republicans think being pro-business is the same as being pro-market. They defend the status quo against bad reforms and think they’ve defended economic freedom. The status quo stinks. And the sooner Republicans learn that, the sooner they’ll deserve to win again.
Of course, there are a lot of things they’ll have to learn to deserve to win again.
And You Thought The Science Of Climate Fraud Was Bad?
Check out the economics of it.
Don’t Panic!
Thoughts on global warming, and cooling, from JoSH:
From the perspective of the Holocene as a whole, our current hockeystick is beginning to look pretty dinky. By far the possibility I would worry about, if I were the worrying sort, would be the return to an ice age — since interglacials, over the past half million years or so, have tended to last only 10,000 years or so. And Ice ages are not conducive to agriculture.
What’s the environmental impact of the Great Lakes region being under a mile of ice?
The Fallout Continues
Several physicists are asking the American Physical Society to rescind its 2007 endorsement of AGW:
In 2007 the APS Council adopted a Statement on global warming (also reproduced at the tinyurl site mentioned above) that was based largely on the scientific work that is now revealed to have been corrupted. (The principals in this escapade have not denied what they did, but have sought to dismiss it by saying that it is normal practice among scientists. You know and we know that that is simply untrue. Physicists are not expected to cheat.)
If I were a working scientist, I would be most insulted by the insinuation, which seems to be their current main defense, that “everyone does it,” and “this is the way that science works.” I’ve seen blog commenters try this game, and I think it’s an outrageous slur on the thousands of scientists who actually do science with integrity.
[Update a few minutes later]
Roger Simon has a plausible theory as to why the president delayed his trip to Copenhagen. It buys him time to decide not to go at all, as the whole enterprise (finally and thankfully) begins to unravel.
[Another update a couple minutes later]
Like me, Eric Raymond is popping the corn. I think we’ll see a lot more of this:
My favorite recent entry on the CRU mob is a screed from a professor of mathematics in Canada: “All of my colleagues have had to endure these bullies and criminals for a very long time.”
Now that the curtain has been pulled back, and the great Oz revealed as a fraud, expect a lot of previously cowed people to speak up, and even pile on. It’s not going to be pretty, but it’s no less than they’ll deserve.
[Update a few minutes later]
The (still) faithful gather in Copenhagen:
…it’s already clear that being here during the next few days is going to be very much like attending some kind of massive religious gathering. The faithful — over 16,000 strong — are here, of course, for the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, a.k.a. COP15 (“COP” as in Copenhagen), at which they supposedly hope to achieve a provisional international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus rescue our beloved blue planet from the fate envisioned in any number of bad Roland Emmerich movies.
I say “supposedly” because at this point, lacking a polygraph, it’s hard to know for sure what any of these professional climate folks really think or believe or aspire to.
Oh, I think we can guess.
More Evidence That These Are Religious Fanatics
After doing yeoman’s duty in going through the CRU emails, Steve Hayward notes:
How is it possible for a group of smart people to write over 1,000 e-mails over the course of a decade without a single shred of wit or humor in any of them?
As the title says…
And as Mark Steyn notes at the link, the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin has been excommunicated.
Scientists Behaving Badly
Steve Hayward has a long, but useful piece on Climaquiddick. He’s been reading a lot of the emails. While it’s not clear whether or not AGW is happening, it’s very clear at this point that the field has been completely discredited, even if those promoting it don’t realize it.
Speaking Of Climate Change
…not to mention Jim Hansen. Is it the new Nazism? Thoughts over at AdamSmith.org.