Of Hockey Players and Hellstorms
It never ceases to amaze how quickly the rust accrues on the mental gears involved in writing. As you might guess from a quick look at the date of the previous posts, I find myself in such a state. And I hesitate to grind all of the rust off, knowing that the hellstorm of finals is about to descend; I would perhaps be better served to conserve the energy for dodging chunks of brimstone as they rain down on me.
Nevertheless, we must often do what is right, even when it is not expedient. And speaking of inconvenient truths and the end of the world, let’s talk global warming for a moment. Perhaps you have heard of the recent scandal involving emails from the Climatic Research Unit at East Anglia University. I find this response from some of the actors involved at RealClimate.org to be the most revealing.
The author correctly points out that the materials in question do not show a conspiracy, that give-and-take is normal in science, and that the scientific community (he may mean simply “the global warming community”) is not the monolith as which it is sometimes presented. But he misses several points. For example, just as he cites the non-monolithic nature of science, he then reverts to claims of “scientific consensus,” claiming monolithic agreement on global warming (and thus justification for marginalizing dissent—the stuff that makes monoliths into polyliths).
And this goes to the heart of the matter—what the emails and documents DO show.
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