4. Global Warming as a Religion.

Heretics must be punished.  Hansen wants to put the unbelievers on trial.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/23/fossilfuels.climatechange

Columnist Ellen Goodman’s statement placing global warming skeptics on a par with Holocaust deniers shows a willingness on her part to try to silence credentialed critics of a challengeable theory. This attempt to place prominent atmospheric and climate scientists who have made legitimate criticisms of the prevailing IPCC theory with the likes of lunatic fringe Holocaust deniers is no accident. This is a deliberate attempt to silence those credible scientists who find fault with the methods and procedures of the IPCC. This is an opening salvo in a campaign to marginalize those who challenge the prevailing orthodoxy. I have no doubt that Goodman would have scoffed at Louis Pasteur and Albert Einstein, both of whom also challenged prevailing scientific orthodoxy.

By making the comparison to Holocaust denial, Goodman also trivialized the Holocaust by comparing a known and documented history with a theory based on computer models. According to the IPCC this theory has a 9 out of 10 chance of being right and the IPCC phrased this statistic as “very high confidence.” Would Ellen Goodman express the truth of the Holocaust as only a 9 out of 10 chance? Would she state her belief using the same terms as the IPCC as that she had a “very high confidence” that the Holocaust occurred? Also, many of those who deny the Holocaust are motivated by anti-Semitism. Goodman does not reveal the comparable ideology that would motivate those who deny anthropogenic global warming.

There is much room for doubt concerning the exact causes for climate change. Solar activity is one possibility. The IPCC summary is a political document with a consensus that was reached by negotiation and compromise. This is not exactly the way scientists are supposed to make their conclusions. Science is not a consensus but is based on correct interpretation of observable phenomena along with the performing of experiments that can be repeated.

An interesting question that Goodman needs to ask herself why does she so readily want to believe in the conclusions of a report that she will not even be able to read in its entirety until May of this year. Has her belief in anthropogenic climate change become an article of religious faith that does not need facts or debate to prove that it is true?

Thomas Kuhn in “The Structure of Scientific Revolution” explained that science does not necessarily change in a linear fashion but through paradigm shifts in which older ideas are challenged and the prevailing orthodoxy is overturned. To place those presently engaged in criticism of the latest paradigm on a par with holocaust deniers would be to place all those who helped science advance by challenging the orthodoxy of their day on a par with holocaust deniers.

NASA chief regrets comments on climate change.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19058588 

Michael Crichton on this subject.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2938762&page=1

Heretics are punished

http://washtimes.com/national/20070211-112902-4433r.htm

William F Buckley compares the Global Warming doomsayers to inquisitors.