Outrage Is a Great Motivator
The last couple days have seen my colleague and me scurrying as though mad to get a genetic data set ready on time for distribution to our collaborators. Everything was going smoothly until two days ago, when a whole bunch of inexplicable errors started popping up during our final error check. We did, in fact, send it out on schedule this evening, but at the cost of much sleep and a couple square feet of stomach lining.
Hence, I was not in the mood to deal with any bullshit upon arrival back home. And then I read the following letter to the editor in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Randy Cunningham's letter to the editor Sunday on global warming brought to mind something Bertrand Russell once said: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." To say that Cunningham overstates the strength of the consensus among climatologists concerning global warming would be an understatement.
To understand how uncertain the true science is about the subject (as opposed to the politicized science), one only has to consider the fact that we are not even sure what the average temperatures have been since records started being kept (about 1880). Why? Because for much of that time, thermometers were located only in places where people were, rather than everywhere across the globe, which would obviously be important if we were trying to figure out what effect man has had on global temperatures.
For more information explaining what climatologists-yes, actual climatologists, not Al Gore and Hollywood movies-have to say about the issue of global warming please go to www.junkscience.com. But be forewarned: the site is heavy on science and light on the sort of "Everybody knows that..." arguments that are the hallmark of the environmental movement.
Anthony Dlugos
Chester Township
For those of you not familiar with Junk Science, as I was until this evening, all you need to know is that the site's owner, Stephen J. Milloy, is a corporate-stooge slimebag of the first magnitude. He has worked as a lobbyist for such environment-friendly corporations as RJR Reynolds, Philip Morris, and the entire goddamn oil industry. He speaks on Fox News, that paragon of objectivity and scientific excellence, as "junk science" commentator. In the past he has mockingly criticized research on the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke (while on Philip Morris's payroll, coincidentally) and DDT, and lobbies incessantly against any improvement in air quality standards in the US.
I couldn't let this piece of dreck go unanswered. I fired off a rejoinder:
Dear Editor:
I read Anthony Dlugos's letter on global warming in the February 1 Plain Dealer with both amusement and alarm. In stating that thermometers are our only source of information on climate history-ignoring numerous lines of indirect evidence, such as tree rings, lake sediments and polar ice cores-Mr. Dlugos displays his phenomenal ignorance of climatology.
More importantly, I wish to warn readers of the Plain Dealer about the Web site www.junkscience.com and its curator, Steven Milloy. Mr. Milloy is not a climatologist. He is, in fact, an oil-industry shill. Mr. Milloy was registered, for the years 1998-2000, as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, and has received funding from ExxonMobil. The fallacies in his arguments against climate change have been thoroughly exposed.
Only in the United States, of all the industrialized nations, is global warming viewed as even remotely controversial. Two prominent reasons: domination of the government by corporate interests, and deplorable science education. Through knowledge and critical thinking we can defeat the efforts of industry-sponsored pundits to confuse us and keep us in the dark.
For truthful analysis on global warming, please read RealClimate (www.realclimate.org)-a site created and maintained by an international coalition of actual climatologists.
Sincerely,
6_bleen_7
The Real World
Alas, I had to keep the body text down to a mere 200 words; I had much more to say. I even had to leave out all the snarky adjectives-except for "phenomenal ignorance." Definitely had to make room for that one.
Hence, I was not in the mood to deal with any bullshit upon arrival back home. And then I read the following letter to the editor in the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Randy Cunningham's letter to the editor Sunday on global warming brought to mind something Bertrand Russell once said: "The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt." To say that Cunningham overstates the strength of the consensus among climatologists concerning global warming would be an understatement.
To understand how uncertain the true science is about the subject (as opposed to the politicized science), one only has to consider the fact that we are not even sure what the average temperatures have been since records started being kept (about 1880). Why? Because for much of that time, thermometers were located only in places where people were, rather than everywhere across the globe, which would obviously be important if we were trying to figure out what effect man has had on global temperatures.
For more information explaining what climatologists-yes, actual climatologists, not Al Gore and Hollywood movies-have to say about the issue of global warming please go to www.junkscience.com. But be forewarned: the site is heavy on science and light on the sort of "Everybody knows that..." arguments that are the hallmark of the environmental movement.
Anthony Dlugos
Chester Township
For those of you not familiar with Junk Science, as I was until this evening, all you need to know is that the site's owner, Stephen J. Milloy, is a corporate-stooge slimebag of the first magnitude. He has worked as a lobbyist for such environment-friendly corporations as RJR Reynolds, Philip Morris, and the entire goddamn oil industry. He speaks on Fox News, that paragon of objectivity and scientific excellence, as "junk science" commentator. In the past he has mockingly criticized research on the dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke (while on Philip Morris's payroll, coincidentally) and DDT, and lobbies incessantly against any improvement in air quality standards in the US.
I couldn't let this piece of dreck go unanswered. I fired off a rejoinder:
Dear Editor:
I read Anthony Dlugos's letter on global warming in the February 1 Plain Dealer with both amusement and alarm. In stating that thermometers are our only source of information on climate history-ignoring numerous lines of indirect evidence, such as tree rings, lake sediments and polar ice cores-Mr. Dlugos displays his phenomenal ignorance of climatology.
More importantly, I wish to warn readers of the Plain Dealer about the Web site www.junkscience.com and its curator, Steven Milloy. Mr. Milloy is not a climatologist. He is, in fact, an oil-industry shill. Mr. Milloy was registered, for the years 1998-2000, as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute, and has received funding from ExxonMobil. The fallacies in his arguments against climate change have been thoroughly exposed.
Only in the United States, of all the industrialized nations, is global warming viewed as even remotely controversial. Two prominent reasons: domination of the government by corporate interests, and deplorable science education. Through knowledge and critical thinking we can defeat the efforts of industry-sponsored pundits to confuse us and keep us in the dark.
For truthful analysis on global warming, please read RealClimate (www.realclimate.org)-a site created and maintained by an international coalition of actual climatologists.
Sincerely,
6_bleen_7
The Real World
Alas, I had to keep the body text down to a mere 200 words; I had much more to say. I even had to leave out all the snarky adjectives-except for "phenomenal ignorance." Definitely had to make room for that one.