The debate over global warming has turned hysterical in the wake of the Democratic takeover of Congress and the most recent United Nations report asserting a 90% likelihood of human-caused climate change. And anybody who disagrees had better be prepared for attacks on their scientific credentials, their honesty, and even their right to speak out.
Case in point — the singularly nasty attack by the left-wing Guardian newspaper of England a week or so ago attacking a distinguished American think tank, the American Enterprise Institute of Washington, D.C., for soliciting scholarly papers that might disagree with the so-called global warming consensus. "Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study," the Guardian breathlessly headlined its story last week.
AEI, described as a "lobby group," was said to be offering $10,000 — plus, wait for it, travel expenses — to scientists and economists for essays that showed the "limitations of global climate models." In the second paragraph the Guardian described AEI as an "ExxonMobil-funded think tank with close links to the Bush administration."
Never mind that scientists on both sides of the issue take "cash" to study global warming. And never mind that AEI isn't a "lobby group" — under American tax law, organizations like AEI are expressly prohibited from lobbying. Or that ExxonMobil funding is less than 1% of AEI's total budget, or that a recent AEI research paper called for a tax on carbon, an idea that is hardly in line with ExxonMobil's financial interests.
When the left is out to smear an opponent, any brand of tar will do. Consider Vice President Gore's mantra, which has been picked up by much of the press, that global warming skeptics are "deniers" — as in Holocaust deniers. You might expect that liberals would be leery of attempts to liken an opponent to the nuts who deny that Hitler murdered 6 million Jews. "Are you now or have you ever been a denier?" But no, the moral paragons of Beverly Hills appear set to deliver an Oscar to Mr. Gore for his bravery in telling supposedly inconvenient truths.
Mr. Gore has been caught at this sort of thing before. In 1994, Ted Koppel disclosed on "Nightline" that Mr. Gore had called to suggest he investigate various global warming skeptics for their ties to the coal industry and other interests. Mr. Koppel said he had refused. He went on to chastise Mr. Gore publicly for "resorting to political means to achieve what should ultimately be resolved on a purely scientific basis."
Just so. But Mr. Gore and others still seem unable to restrain their bile. The Washington Post recently quoted Mr. Gore as referring to a prominent Republican senator as a "denier." All of which makes one wonder: Do these people have as much confidence as they pretend to have in their theories about why the globe may be heating up? Maybe there is good reason for AEI and others to ask for a closer look at those computer models claiming to show a meltdown of the earth in coming decades.
The late Karl Popper, one of the 20th century's most eminent philosophers, wrote and spoke often of the glories — and dangers — of the Enlightenment's faith in science. " … the theory that truth is manifest not only breeds fanatics — men possessed by the conviction that all those who do not see the manifest truth must be possessed by the devil — but it may also lead … to authoritarianism."
You may think that's overwrought. But remember that just last week on February 9, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that government would have to impose a mandatory cap to reduce greenhouse emissions by 50%, a move that would bring government ever more deeply into the heart of the economy. And that, global warming enthusiasts add, would just be a first step. For, after all, it is the point of the whole global warming agitation to begin with.
No comments:
Post a Comment