{"id":585,"date":"2006-07-30T12:01:54","date_gmt":"2006-07-30T19:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/?p=585"},"modified":"2006-08-04T07:39:33","modified_gmt":"2006-08-04T14:39:33","slug":"scientific-consensus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/2006\/07\/30\/scientific-consensus\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientific Consensus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Update &#8211; 04 August 2006 &#8211; GRIM, posting at Blackfive comes up with an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blackfive.net\/main\/2006\/08\/global_warming_.html\">interesting essay<\/a> about the scientific community and various scientists&#8217; persuasions about global warming and climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Beware when the words <em>scientific <\/em> and <em>consensus <\/em>are used together.<\/p>\n<div class=\"right\">\n<script src=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/video\/coronalejection.php\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s interesting how <strong>Newsweek Magazine<\/strong>, long known in conservative circles to be politically left, seems to have changed it&#8217;s mind about long-term climate change. They couldn&#8217;t be merely harping about the latest trends in junk science, could they? <\/p>\n<p><em>Image (Courtesy NASA <a href=\"http:\/\/sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov\/\">SOHO<\/a>): A three-day movie of the Sun reveals why this seething monster is the main source of climate effects on Earth. After watching this for a few moments, the notion that mankind could have a more significant effect than the Sun seems patently ridiculous. Just look at the bubbling cauldron of the photosphere and the massive plasma ejections! Awesome!<\/em> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Dan Walters<\/strong> of the <em>Sacramento Bee<\/em> writes an interesting editorial about current climate junk science and the political outcroppings in California:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/content\/politics\/ca\/story\/14283644p-15091318c.html\">Global warming, whether theory or fact, spawns political heat<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thirty-one years ago, Newsweek magazine published an extensive account of what it described as a growing scientific consensus of global climate change.<\/p>\n<div style=\"color: #090;\">&#8220;There are ominous signs that the Earth&#8217;s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production,&#8221; Newsweek said, adding, &#8220;The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it&#8221; and &#8220;to scientists these seemingly disparate incidents represent the advance signs of fundamental changes in the world&#8217;s weather.&#8221;<\/div>\n<p>Global warming? Not quite. The Newsweek article about the emerging scientific consensus was about global <em>cooling <\/em>and the potential onset of a <em>mini-ice age<\/em>, akin to the one that chilled the Northern Hemisphere between 1600 and 1900. [See the facts about the <a href=\"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/?p=369\">Maunder Minimum<\/a> and mini-ice-age &#8212; Ed.]<\/p>\n<p>Now we are told, of course, that there&#8217;s a growing <em>scientific consensus<\/em> about global warming, with hydrocarbon emissions from humankind&#8217;s economic activities the chief culprit, although there&#8217;s a significant body of contrary opinion.<\/p>\n<p>Whether global warming is a scientific fact or, alternatively, a theory being propagandized for ideological reasons is still an open question. But it clearly is a political fact and in politics, perceptions are always more powerful than reality, whatever it may be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Walters goes on to write about how all this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/content\/politics\/ca\/story\/14283644p-15091318c.html\">plays out in California politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, it&#8217;s no surprise to me that the politically-left <strong>Newsweek <\/strong>jumped all over the latest junk science in their October 1997 issue devoted to <em>global warming<\/em>. Shame on them for being junk science mongers.<\/p>\n<p><em>The words scientific and consensus used together are always a sham. True science requires that proof be demonstrated &#8212; quad erat demonstratum &#8212; which is <u>never<\/u> the case with <u>scientific consensus<\/u>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Update &#8211; 04 August 2006 &#8211; GRIM, posting at Blackfive comes up with an interesting essay about the scientific community and various scientists&#8217; persuasions about global&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california","category-global-warming","category-whacko-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/capnbob.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}