- Hello from Syria!
- What I say to people who tell me I’m motivated by pride to question the Church
- Why I love First Things
- Catholics and Republicans on same-sex marriage and public reason
- Please don’t leave the Catholic Church!
- So, being 28…
- On Overthinking (and Susan Boyle)
- How Heresy Becomes Theology
- Why talking to certain Catholics is like talking to communists
- Changes to the Blog
- More Blog Entries
Yes global warming is happening. Yes we need to do something. But how much of something is up to debate. From the NYTimes:
Dr. Pielke, a professor in the environmental studies program at the University of Colorado, is the author of “The Honest Broker,” a book arguing that most scientists are fundamentally mistaken about their role in political debates. As a result, he says, they’re jeopardizing their credibility while impeding solutions to problems like global warming.
Most researchers, Dr. Pielke writes, like to think of themselves in one of two roles: as a pure researcher who remains aloof from messy politics, or an impartial arbiter offering expert answers to politicians’ questions. Either way, they believe their research can point the way to correct public policies, and sometimes it does — when the science is clear and people’s values aren’t in conflict.
But climate change, like most political issues, isn’t so simple. While most scientists agree that anthropogenic global warming is a threat, they’re not certain about its scale or its timing or its precise consequences (like the condition of California’s water supply in 2090). And while most members of the public want to avoid future harm from climate change, they have conflicting values about which sacrifices are worthwhile today.


“Yes global warming is happening. Yes we need to do something.”
Well, in fact, no. Global warming stopped about 5 years ago. Sure, it will get warmer again — weather changes, and it’s more or less always warmer or cooler than average.
As for what we should “do” about the weather — what’s the old joke? “Everybody complains about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it!” All of the proposed “somethings” range from laughably ineffective to monstrously evil. Stalin killed at least 12,000,000 people with the forced collectivization of soviet agriculture. The global warming faithful might just give him a run for that record.
Please note that the editorial staff reserves the right to not post comments it deems to be inappropriate and/or malicious in nature, as well as edit comments for length, clarity and fairness.