[geeks] Global warming, was Mr Bill?

[Lionel Peterson]

On Sep 18, 2008, at 5:01 PM, Shannon Hendrix <shannon at widomaker.com>  
wrote:

> On Sep 18, 2008, at 08:49 , Phil Stracchino wrote:
>
>> That said, the overwhelming scientific consensus is that  
>> anthropogenic
>> global warming exists and is a very real problem.
>
> It's only overwhelming if you are in the right room.
>
> There used to be overwhelming consensus that the world was flat,  
> that Earth was the center of the universe, etc.
>
> Consensus is a popularity contest.
>
> Meanwhile people who are really practicing science can't even be  
> heard, regardless of which side they are on.

Science is also infused with politics, and grant money goes to  
scientists that find new ways of reinforcing the opinions/views/ 
desired outcomes of the folks offering the research grants.

If you need to publish to keep from perishing, I suspect it is much  
easier to get a work that "proves" global warming than it is to  
challenge that belief... So then you have a preponderence of work that  
proves global warming simply because that was the easy way to get  
published.

Lionel