15 February 2011
What is it about climate change that makes smart people say silly things?
Posted by Dan Satterfield
I am constantly amazed at the number of smart people who make a right turn into a brick wall when it comes to climate change. There are plenty examples and they all have one thing in common. They usually come from well educated people, (with a science background) who repeat myths about climate change that they’ve read or heard.
If they took the time to research the claim they are parroting, they would quickly find that in most cases it’s rather silly. I was not surprised when I heard that an Alabama congressman was quoted as saying “the scientists were predicting an ice age back in the 1970’s”. Were they? No. It’s not true, and the story behind this makes some surprising reading.
You might expect that of a politician, but not usually of someone with some training in critical thinking and scientific method. Bob Ryan, (past president of the American Meteorological Society) saw just such an episode recently and decided to correct the bad science.
With some of the junk science I see online each day, it’s IMHO time for more of the science community to call foul. The public deserves accurate representations of what science is, and how it works. Even if it disturbs their dearly held worldview.
If an Medical Doctor announced that the astronomers are all wrong about the big bang, or claimed the geologists have plate tectonics all wrong, they would be laughed at. Is it supposed to be different when an M.D. goes on TV and calls climate physics a religion.
Most people, who are able to separate political belief from science, will say no.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by naomiofdiamonds and ScienceSeeker Feed, Chris Rowan. Chris Rowan said: What is it about climate change that makes smart people say silly things? http://bit.ly/gVnEoq […]
It was not 25 years ago that we were able to skate on our local river for at least two months out of the year, it does not even close up now. Lots of snow but not so cold these days.
Ref Bob Ryan – “Don’t take it on faith; it’s not religion. It’s science.”
But I thought Krauthammer was talking about Gore. I don’t recall that Albert Gore Jr. is a ‘scientist’ in any field and that most of what he expounds on is of a political, economic, social, and “green” bent. Your point is valid but works both ways;-)
It’s rather silly when you think about it. Millions of (mainly Americans with little or no science training) have decided that virtually all of the worlds top science bodies are wrong on climate change. Why? Because a politician they cannot stand says they are right.
What we do about climate change is a political question. The reality of it is a scientific one and one that has been answered. It just does not fit with the political world view of some. Al Gore got it right when he said it was an “Inconvenient Truth.