(04-25-2009 04:52 PM)RobertN Wrote: (04-25-2009 09:48 AM)Paul M Wrote: (04-25-2009 09:01 AM)smn1256 Wrote: The problem with global warming is that politicians like Gore, who is not a scientist, are making scientific decisions and people follow them without question.
But they're not making scientific decisions. They're making political decisions, pushing a political agenda, and using (bad-junk) science as a means. But your right about sheep and young impressionable captive children following without question.
Oh, and then there's that little thing about making a sh1t load of money.
As if your anti-man made global warming "scientists" aren't highly paid by the oil/coal industry to put out studies in the best interest in those companies.
At this point I think BOTH sides have been co-opted by money.
On the other hand, any study should be evaluated based on the quality and validity of its methodology and assumptions, not who paid for it.
The source of funding does not, in and of itself, render any work unreliable.
Was undue influence brought upon the study by the funding source?
Is undue influence brought upon all work in this area by the fact that the scientific establishment, which conducts the peer reviews, has pretty much decided that only one point of view will be published?
Is funding by oil companies the only way to overcome the inherent prejudice in the peer review process?
Certain elements of the scientific establishment are going to great lengths to stifle honest debate on the issue. They may be right. On the other hand, they may be simply the modern-day successors to those who attempted to silence Galileo and Copernicus.
What's really sad is how much effort is going into this debate when either way fossil fuels create environmental problems and either way we pretty much need to be doing the same things to end our reliance on foreign oil. It would be far better to be able to do those things in a rational, orderly manner rather than in a panic/crisis mode.
Where I see a real problem is that I believe some participants have hidden agendas which benefit from forcing things to done in a panic/crisis mode rather than allowing sensible and rational decisions to be made. Sensible and rational decision-making would never have led us to corn ethanol, for example.
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If your child comes home from school crying today....
More wingnuts. Welcome to the "nut house".
