I don’t post about my science interest too often. Partly because I tend toward the theoretical/math stuff (which most people don’t follow), but mostly because I just don’t feel like defending my positions on major misuses (IMHO) of modern science.
But I heard one yesterday that I simply have to rant about.
Yesterday evening (Tuesday, May 19) on WHYY out of Philadelphia (an NPR station, I know) the station had a guest on to talk about the horrors of climate change and what the Obama administration and the current Congress is going to do to save us all.
I abhor these kinds of discussions, because the stations always get these quack scientists who couldn’t model their way through a maze in a coloring book to talk about the Deep And Profound Things.
This particular discussion started off with the interviewer asking the “scientist” about the science behind global warming/climate change, and whether it was really a threat. Talk about a leading question! The “scientist” spent the next 5 minutes explaining how the science had proven that 1) global climate change was real, and that 2) it was being caused by changes in the composition of the atmosphere that were the result of man’s activities on the earth.
This then segued into a a gushing talk about how Congress and the American government was finally taking a leadership stance in the fight against global warming, and how 35mpg cars, mileage-destroying emissions limits, and carbon cap-and-trade schemes were going to save the world.
There’s just a couple problems. They are 1) global climate change is real and has been happening since earth has had an atmospehere and 2) we do not know if the changes in the atmosphere are damaging.
First, geology tells us that the earth’s climate is ever-changing. And it changes fast. Dinosaurs? Killed off in mass extinctions at least a half-dozen times. The geologic record in North America says that once the last ice age ended (around 12,000 years ago) it only took about 100 years for the glaciers to retreat to the arctic circle. We’re talking thousands of miles of glacial melt-off in just 100 years! That’s glacial retreat of more than 10 miles every year. To give this some scale, “scientists” are worried about glacial shearing of less than a mile per year, which is being replaced by new glacier growth.
Second, as an example of “we don’t know what the hell the consequences of our actions are”, is a recent study that shows how knee-jerk environmental regulations of the 1970′s have actually excaserbated the problem of atmospheric pollution. [Note to self, insert reference as soon you find the study again.]
Don’t get me wrong, I like science. I love science. I just hate seeing it misused to dupe people into supporting something that the science doesn’t actually support.
