On "Skeptics" and "Believers"

Going ape over climate

"This week the Governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam, had to decide whether to veto a bill that would have promoted the questioning of “conventional” science in classrooms. The science establishment was in a tizzy not just because the bill was seen as an attempt to get anti-Darwinian “intelligent design” back on the curriculum, but because it was linked to another religious/scientific issue: catastrophic man-made climate change.

Darwin’s theory of natural selection didn’t “kill God,” but it severely undermined literal readings of the Bible. Theories of catastrophic man-made climate change are ideologically crucial for the liberal left because they justify their core demonization of capitalism; implying massive “market failure,” and confirming that industrial society, and corporations in particular, are “externalizing machines” that fecklessly dump their garbage into the atmosphere. This “settled” science requires vast schemes of “global governance,” à la Kyoto, plus policy guidance toward energy technologies “of the future,” plus further major redistribution of cash to poor climate “victims.” This will all be masterminded by the United Nations, which just happens to be the guardian of the official science.

It’s worth noting that left liberals hold such arrangements desirable even without catastrophic climate change, which may explain why Al Gore treats skepticism as just so much pickiness. In line with religious demonization, they condemn skeptics as “deniers” motivated either by mental derangement, “fundamentalist” religious/ideological beliefs, or wicked self-interest.

Skeptics by contrast note — whatever their religious convictions — that claims of “settled” science are themselves unscientific. They do not “deny” climate change, or an impact on climate by humans. Their questions are ones of degree, and of the appropriate policy response. They note that the policy prescriptions of catastrophists would be — on the basis of voluminous historical evidence — unworkable, counterproductive and dangerous. The Kyoto process has fallen apart, but even if all its signatories had met their obligations — which in Canada would have involved a slashing of industrial activity and a massive loss of jobs — the impact on the climate would have been minuscule. Meanwhile, “industrial strategy” has always and everywhere failed, just as the “green” variety is collapsing worldwide."

Funny. I haven't noticed much of a collapse. Au contraire. They've simply removed certain key elements from their statements - such as the word "catastrophic" and "anthropogenic".

"Many skeptics may indeed be morally or religiously motivated by the belief that the route to improving the lives of the poor lies through economic development, which must, for the moment at least, be based on use of fossil fuels. They note that the top-down aid model has been an abysmal failure. The left, meanwhile, has a slight problem when it suggests that skepticism might be based on religious conviction rather than objective science. They are supported by the World Council of Churches, which believes that “a specific composition of the atmosphere” is a gift of God. It is also intriguing that left-liberal catastrophists, while angrily dismissing intelligent design in biology, adhere to it when it comes to economics, which represents what Friedrich Hayek called the “fatal conceit” behind the failures of socialism.

Ironically, Darwinism helps explain why religion has been an integral part of man’s moral and intellectual development, and why belief remains important to a sense of community. In its moderate forms, such as those that tend to prevail in the U.S. and Canada, it is a powerful and cohesive force. In its more radical forms, it remains dangerous, but belief in God would appear to be far less problematic than men who believe that they can intelligently design both the global economy and the weather. Fortunately, however, the general public seems to be losing its faith in the church of climate. This fact was admitted this week by one of its leading cardinals, James Hansen, who attributed it to the “tremendous resources” employed by those devilish skeptics. They must be powerful indeed if they can overcome what has become, effectively, a state religion."

In the meantime, spring has sprung here in knuckledraggerland, and the grass is...still under four inches of snow. And that's after several days of above zero temperatures.

Oh well. I wasn't particularly looking forward to yard work. Silver linings and all that...