Irrational Science, Part II
Just to expand a bit on my last post-
Why is it that those who fear global warming the most are those who seem to understand the science the least? As I indicated in my last post, it's because a great many global warming beleivers aren't really concerned with science. For this group (which by no means accounts for all of the global warming beleivers), global warming as impending doom fits a preconceived view of the world, of politics, and of the economy. For these people, global warming isn't an inconvenient truth, it's a very convenient one.
These faith-based global warming beleivers can't claim science, because they're of the same environmentalist stripe as those who oppose agricultural biotechnology, DDT, and other environmental causes du jour. They don't really care about science and don't care about solutions that don't fit their world view.
Updated 3/3/08 @ 12:35 PM : I should probably clarify something- I'm not all that interested in how accurate the survey cited by John Tierney actually is in the first place. For me, it's just an interesting launching point for the discussion of public perception of global warming.
I've blogged a great deal about skepticism of studies in general, so I don't want anyone to misconstrue that I'm taking what amounts to a self-reported survey as the gospel truth. Again, the results we're talking about are really just a source of discussion material, not a mechanism for public policy prescriptions. In the end we're just talking about people's opinions.
Why is it that those who fear global warming the most are those who seem to understand the science the least? As I indicated in my last post, it's because a great many global warming beleivers aren't really concerned with science. For this group (which by no means accounts for all of the global warming beleivers), global warming as impending doom fits a preconceived view of the world, of politics, and of the economy. For these people, global warming isn't an inconvenient truth, it's a very convenient one.
These faith-based global warming beleivers can't claim science, because they're of the same environmentalist stripe as those who oppose agricultural biotechnology, DDT, and other environmental causes du jour. They don't really care about science and don't care about solutions that don't fit their world view.
Updated 3/3/08 @ 12:35 PM : I should probably clarify something- I'm not all that interested in how accurate the survey cited by John Tierney actually is in the first place. For me, it's just an interesting launching point for the discussion of public perception of global warming.
I've blogged a great deal about skepticism of studies in general, so I don't want anyone to misconstrue that I'm taking what amounts to a self-reported survey as the gospel truth. Again, the results we're talking about are really just a source of discussion material, not a mechanism for public policy prescriptions. In the end we're just talking about people's opinions.
posted by lonely libertarian at 9:52 AM
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