Bush's War on Science

[Reverend Blair]

This is an excerpt from The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney.

This is an interview with the author.

He goes through how the Republicans have gone out of their way to distort and abuse science to achieve political goals based on religion and their close ties with corporations.

 

[jimmoyer]

You should read Micheal Crichton's book on Global Warning which catalogs the equal abuses of both sides.

It suggests science like religion builds an inevitable bureaucracy that seeks to sustain itself with the hegemony of political correctness, not the truth.

 

[Reverend Blair]

I've read Crichton's book, Jimmy. It's intellectually dishonest, purposely misleading, and obviously politically motivated.

He got most of the science wrong in Jurrassic Park, including the title, but his screed against the scientific consensus on global warming was even further off the mark. It left me wondering if he was chewing on a peyote button when he did his "research".

 

[#juan]

Rev

Whether or not it's global warming, we had better make damn sure we are right before we go too much farther. One thing is certain, and that is that there is bound to be a significant flywheel effect, in that the latest rise in the level of CO2 in the atmosphere started with the industrial revolution. We haven't had a measurable global temperature rise until the last twenty years or so. A question that so far eludes even scientists is: "How long after we stop the production of greenhouse gasses, will the warming continue?" Bush and his cronies say "Don't worry about it, it's only the sun's cyclic habit of heating up a bit, it is perfectly natural". Science doesn't agree. I repeat, for the sake of our children, "We had better be damned sure.

 

[jimmoyer]

Actually Rev, I've only read reviews of that Crichton book and I guess much like the Da Vinci code it was plausible enough to do what stories want: a temporary suspension of disbelief.

So I'll take your word on it.

Did you read his book, Prey ?

Oops, getting too far astray on the thread.

As far as the politics contaminating the debate of global warming, shrill believers also contaminate the discussion especially when we're talking epochal cycles and I don't see how we will act competently no matter what the shrill believers exhort us to do.

We really should start holding ourselves more accountable than we hold our leaders.

Our own hypocrisy misses our ken in every debate.