There is no difference between global warming deniers and evolution deniers. If only because they are usually the same people. Like the Rev. Jerry Falwell, for instance.
As a matter of introduction, I won all of my school’s science fairs in middle school, junior high school and high school. Being very crappy at calculus, I majored in English in college rather than physics.
It disturbs me greatly when science is abused; when I observe scientific illiteracy run rampant in the United States; and when I watch large corporations manipulate people due to their scientific illiteracy.
If you wish to study the phenomenon of scientific illiteracy up close, talk to someone who declares themself a global warming “skeptic” or “denier.”
If you wish to study the phenomenon of psychological denial up close, talk to a person who possesses a science degree who identifies themself as a global warming “skeptic.”
Examples of both species can be observed interacting with real climate scientists at the www.realclimate.org. The confrontation is not pretty, yet remarkably predictable. When the climate “skeptics” bring their best, A-1 skeptical stuff to battle against the realclimate.org experts, they are always and inevitably crushed to powder. Just look at any one of the comment threads at www.realclimate.org
What is left after this peer-reviewed scientific pummeling are willful lies and delusions, the “sources” the paid for shills of ExxonMobil.
Here’s a question. Why does the U.S. not have a formal, public scientific debate on Global Warming? Each side picks its champion. Each side agrees to a Moderator? Why not?
The reason is obvious. No credible atmospheric scientist would publicly adopt the “No Global Warming” position any more than a credible astronomer would adopt the “Young Earth Creationist” view of astronomy or biology.
Here’s a question. Why has Albert Gore been nominated for Nobel Prize? Why has no Global Warming ‘Skeptic’ been similarly nominated?
Here’s a question. Why has Albert Gore’s low budget movie explaining the basic, underlying science of Earth’s climate system been awarded an Academy Award for Best Documentary?
If Mr. Gore’s scientific overview is absolutely 100 percent wrong — as Dr. Falwell and others hotly contend — where is the outrage amongst the world’s climate and atmospheric scientists ?
The beauty of science is that we all can verify its findings ourselves. I can look at Jupiter in a small telescope in my back yard and see its four brightest moons just as Galileo did.
The beauty of science is precisely that science is not about belief. Science is, has been and will always be that which we can see with our own eyes and check with our own minds. Science is that which you can confirm and check by yourself.
That is why I like science. That is why scientific illiteracy in the United States scares the hell out of me. Without scientific literacy, you and I are left to believing or disbelieving the words of those whom we put trust in, with no way of independently confirming for ourselves if the facts support what they say. That is a condition of ignorance, of believing that baby mice are born from piles of rags on a cellar floor because that’s where they run from when the rag pile is disturbed.
Do we in 2007 really want to descend back to the intellectual pedigree and standards of proof held by Europeans in 1387?
