Sunday, February 11, 2007

Science Wobbly

Former editor of the New Scientist, Nigel Calder, notes how science has been scuttled in favor of politics, and notes that the orthodoxy just doesn't get there:

So one awkward question you can ask, when you’re forking out those extra taxes for climate change, is “Why is east Antarctica getting colder?” It makes no sense at all if carbon dioxide is driving global warming. While you’re at it, you might inquire whether Gordon Brown will give you a refund if it’s confirmed that global warming has stopped. The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999.

He adds that solid contrary science is being ignored.

Thank goodness for cut and paste, as the growing list of blasphemers would be too long to reproduce from scratch every time another joins the ranks. Calder joins other critical thinkers like these guys, this dude, these fellows, this MIT guy, this denialist, some science type, a whole bunch of people, don't forget these smarty-pants, and George Will. And now this guy too. Oh. Don't forget this one.

In other warming news: Tim Blair may find himself $25 million richer, having answered Richard Branson's challenge to find a way to remove a billion metric tons of CO2 from the air in ten years:

Easy. Simply ban automatic cars, as I advised in 2005. Because automatic cars use around 5% more fuel than manual cars, that simple law would save 5,650,000,000 barrels of oil per year in the US alone (and be minimally disruptive in developing nations, where a greater proportion of vehicles are non-automatic). If each barrel contains 175 kilograms of carbon, we’re looking at an annual carbon reduction (US only) in the region of 988,750,000 metric tons.

And, manual transmissions are more fun. Do I smell a Nobel?

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