Science and Politics Don’t Mix

I watched an interview on a news program today that featured a ‘climate expert’ explaining away the recent winter storms as being a consequence of global warming. This ‘expert’ contended that the severity of winter storms actually increases because of anthropogenic climate contributions.

The ‘expert’ blithely ignores actual science – for instance, the current lull in sunspots and solar activity. For the past two years, sunspots have been few and far between. He also ignores the fact that polar ice caps are not decreasing, Florida’s land mass is not decreasing due to a rise in sea level and global ocean temperatures have decreased over the past several years (since 1998).

James Taranto posted the following piece in the “Best of the Web Today” on the topic of selective science validation:

Science’s Ordinary Magisterium

“Scientists have found two large leaks in Earth’s magnetosphere, the region around our planet that shields us from severe solar storms,” Space.com reports:

The leaks are defying many of scientists’ previous ideas on how the interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and solar wind occurs: The leaks are in an unexpected location, let in solar particles in faster than expected and the whole interaction works in a manner that is completely the opposite of what scientists had thought.

Laymen may be confused by the notion of a scientific discovery “that is completely the opposite of what scientists had thought.” After all, we keep reading that all scientists agree about global warming and no one may question it. Is science infallible or isn’t it?

The answer is: It depends. Scientific teachings that are part of the “ordinary magisterium,” such as those involving the interaction between Earth’s magnetosphere and solar wind, are not infallible. But global warming is what scientists call an ex cathedra* doctrine.

* In Catholic theology, the Latin phrase ex cathedra, literally meaning “from the chair”, refers to a teaching by the pope that is considered to be made with the intention of invoking infallibility. This is a concept that always has and always been unknown to true science – everything that is ‘known’ can be modified when ‘new knowledge’ is discovered.

Greenbats choose to cover their ears and say “la-la-la-la-la – I’m not listening,” when actual facts contradict their tunnel-vision views on climate. Very scientific, indeed.