A North Pole expedition meant to bring attention to global warming was called off after one of the explorers got frostbite.Of course, Russ Roberts does a much better job of fisking the entire article than I could, so I'll let well enough alone. I just think it's hilarious.
UPDATE: Updated link to working link.
3 comments:
I'm worried about your laughing at people because they got frostbite. Just kidding, I get the irony.
I don't know what to think of global warming. It is so hot (no pun intended) politically that it is hard to believe that anyone is interested in the truth for truth's sake.
I think there's ample reason to be skeptical of some of the claims of global warming. To wit:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4340135300469846467&q=the+great+global+warming+swindle
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2007/03/global_warming_.html
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/07/a_skeptics_prim.html
I don't think any of the above settles the claim. I think it's very hard to settle it. But I think that the claims of "consensus opinion" are both overblown and dangerous. Overblown because there appear to be several scientists who don't agree, even those listed on the IPCC report. Dangerous because consensus is more the purview of politics rather than science, as Michael Crichton so eloquently put it:
I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.
Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.
- http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeches_quote04.html
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