In case anyone is wondering why I haven't posted anything for the past few days, what with all the fuss over the IPCC and all, it's not because I'm reluctant to comment on it. It's just that my little piece of western North Carolina is only now recovering from an ice storm that knocked the power to my house out last Friday morning. I've only been back online for a few minutes and trying to catch up with all the happenings. Of course, I'm horribly behind in work that pays, so it may be a while before I get back to blogging regularly. Stay tuned.
The Island of Doubt
An irregular exploration of the struggle between the power of rational discourse and the scientific method on one hand, and the forces of superstition and dogma on the other. Mostly regarding climate change, though.
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James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist and communications consultant based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
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« Why the denial camp is winning (and we're all losing) the climate wars | Main | Why the denial camp is winning the climate wars (Part 2): they lie »
Trouble with the IPCC; trouble at the homefront
Category: climate
Posted on: February 9, 2010 9:41 AM, by James Hrynyshyn
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Comments
The good lord is punishing you guys in NC for something you're up to. I've no idea what it is, but I'd bet it's something fairly naughty. Behave yourselves.
Posted by: killinchy | February 9, 2010 12:16 PM
sorry I ruined this board for everyone. it happens everywhere i go. bb b b b bbbu bu bu but yer a liar.
Posted by: ghodaza | February 9, 2010 5:53 PM
You know, trolls are like fungi - it looks that they can crow on almost nothing.
Posted by: hat_eater | February 9, 2010 7:17 PM
"Exaggeration and alarmism have been a chronic weakness of environmentalism since it became an organized movement in the 1960s. Every ecological problem was instantly transformed into a potential world-ending crisis, from the population bomb to the imminent resource depletion of the “limits to growth” fad of the 1970s to acid rain to ozone depletion, always with an overlay of moral condemnation of anyone who dissented from environmental correctness. With global warming, the environmental movement thought it had hit the jackpot — a crisis sufficiently long-range that it could not be falsified and broad enough to justify massive political controls on resource use at a global level. Former Colorado senator Tim Wirth was unusually candid when he remarked in the early days of the climate campaign that “we’ve got to ride the global-warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.” (Not surprisingly, after Wirth left the Senate and the Clinton administration he ended up at the United Nations.)
The global-warming thrill ride looks to be coming to an end, undone by the same politically motivated serial exaggeration and moral preening that discredited previous apocalypses."
Algore? paging Algore, please come to the green courtesy phone. Mann up there, Al!
Posted by: Bird Harrasser | February 10, 2010 9:40 AM
You know the denialists are losing the game when they use quotations without sources and attack Al Gore - its the last refuge of the scientifically blind and deaf.
Posted by: toby | February 11, 2010 9:09 AM
Should the NYT have used the term "denialist" instead of "skeptic"?
Posted by: Greg Laden | February 11, 2010 10:05 AM
A quick primer on how to create climate change in your own backyard.
http://kenskingdom.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/giss-manipulates-climate-data-in-mackay/
Now you, too, can create climate change, just like the "professionals".
ENJOY!
Posted by: J. Ustbwaha | February 11, 2010 10:36 AM
Re #4 a good point and there is an old childrens story about crying wolf that applies here. By now with all predictions of the past even if global warming may be true the proponents have cried wolf one to many times, and will be ignored. In the US we now have a very strong anti-elite movement covering government, big business, the media and a good bit of the scientific establishment, because the people don't want to be told what is good for them, its their life and they want to live it the way they want to.
Posted by: Lyle | February 11, 2010 10:27 PM