Posted May 15, 2012, by JVH
I’ve always tried to just take things as they come and give them the sniff test. If it smells a tad “dodgy,” as the Brits would say, it probably is. And usually when people talk in absolutes, they probably don’t know what they are talking about.
• The world ends tomorrow.
• All Muslims are evil.
• All non-Muslims are evil.
• All war is bad.
• All politicians lie (well, maybe this one is OK).
• All garages lose at least 20% of their revenue.
• All dogs bite.
• All (Republicans, Democrats) are bad people.
• The science is settled.
• All fat people are unhealthy.
You get the idea. Absolutes bring skepticism, at least to me.
So when a blogger holds a position and says, “That’s the way it is,” I immediately look for a way to push back.
Casey Jones, posting over at the IPI’s Parking Matters/The Blog, and I have been going back and forth over sustainability and the efficacy of climate change and the like. Casey takes the position that this is “settled science,” and I take a skeptical approach. I listed some links, and he came back with other links and like that. Fair enough.
However, I did want to add one more link, which I found very compelling. The blog www.notrickszone.com, run by a U.S.
citizen living in northern Germany, takes a contrarian position on climate change, and This May 9 entry is a translated interview, given a Swiss magazine by a German physicist and meteorologist, who is fairly blunt in his position. Take a moment to read it. Granted, there are arguments on all sides, but to say that the science is settled is a flag to a skeptic like moi.
Here is a quote, translated by the NoTricksZone blogger, from the German scientist on climate change:
There’s nothing we can do to stop it. Scientifically, it is sheer absurdity to think we can get a nice climate by turning a CO2 adjustment knob. Many confuse environmental protection with climate protection. It’s impossible to protect the climate, but we can protect the environment and our drinking water. On the debate concerning alternative energies, which is sensible, it is often driven by the irrational climate debate. One has nothing to do with the other.
So, be good stewards of our environment, protect our drinking water and our air, invest where it will make a real difference, and we will have the best possible world in which to live. Investing trillions and destroying entire economies based on panic seems to me to be a fool’s errand.
JVH
