It Is All Al Gore's Fault
By now you have all heard that a bunch of formerly secret e-mails and data relating to climate science have been revealed. It is casting serious doubt on the integrity of a number of the big names in the field and also adding to doubt about the size of the role of CO2 in climate change.
My solution to the current situation? Audit all the material.
But that is not my main point here. I want to give credit where credit is due. If Al Gore hadn't invented the Internet none of this would have been possible.
If you want to read about my meager contribution to the development of the Internet you can look here. I guess that means I had something to do with the revelations as well. Heh.
Cross Posted at Classical Values
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1 comment:
The whole thing just makes me sad. Sad, and frightened.
I really thought all this time that we were seeing garden-variety ego-clashes and grant-gamesmanship, which are the norm in academia. But even if you throw out the most blatant of the e-mails (and there's no reason as yet to believe they aren't genuine), what you've got is supposed "scientists" actively, blatantly conspiring to prevent any science getting done.
Many in academia have gone to great lengths to avoid admitting error. Doubly so when grant money is on the line. This is a bad thing, but the system of peer-reviewed research eventually gets to the truth, however slow the gears may turn.
But these jokers grabbed a tremendous amount of power and influence by politicizing the grant process, and subverted the peer-review system to maintain that power. The result was power both in "scientific" influence and in political influence. Enough power to make the whole thing self-perpetuating.
This cannot stand. Not to be dramatic, but if the process of peer-reviewed science can repeatedly be subverted like this for political gain, we stand to lose everything that has made us great. The great, yawning chasm of a new Dark Ages stands before us if we fail to correct this.
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