The global-warming Inquisition
December 12, 2009
Ralph Peters
In the most notorious trial in the history of science, the Inquisition condemned Galileo in 1633. The aged scientist was forced to recant his life’s work. The fact that the earth revolves around the sun threatened the church establishment’s doctrine. Galileo was worse than right — he was inconvenient.
Since his trial, scientists have mythologized him as their secular saint.
How times have changed: With the Climategate scandal, we now find scientists in the role of inquisitors — suppressing inconvenient facts and persecuting researchers who challenge the doctrine decreed by the
Global Warming clergy.
There are two potentially world-changing issues in play. First, as
President Obama prepares yet another soaring speech, this time for Copenhagen, we face the complex issue of climate change.
The second vexing issue is: Can we trust our scientists? They’re supposed to be the guardians of truth, who unlock the secrets of the universe with scrupulous objectivity. Can we survive scientists who lie to influence policy?
On the first count — the global- warming question — I’m like most Americans: I lack the technical background to investigate and judge the data myself. Is climate change real? Yes. But the climate has always changed in great cycles. Are today’s changes man-made and newly destructive? I don’t know — although I suspect we make things worse.
It would help if I could depend on scientists to lay out the case honestly. But now we find that some of the most influential specialists on climate change are outright liars, manipulating data and (shades of Inquisition bookburnings) using the peer-review process to silence those who suggest that global warming’s more complex than
Al Gore claims.
This matters. Because we non-experts are trying to find our way. Responsible citizens care about the environment, if to varying degrees — who among us doesn’t want clean drinking water?
Most of us are willing to do sensible things to safeguard the environment. But we don’t want to break our economy. Nor do we want to give China, the world’s worst polluter, a free pass. Rational burdens shared make sense, but ideology-driven restrictions unfairly applied won’t fly (despite the Obama administration’s attempts to end-run Congress).
And sorry: A green-jobs revolution remains a dream. Americans need real jobs now. Does it really have to be either/or? I’m a conservationist, but not an environmentalist. The difference? A conservationist believes that trees are important. An environmentalist believes that trees are more important than people. I love the outdoors, but I also like electricity.
And I don’t like agreements that only we, the Canadians and a few European nations will honor. I don’t want vast sums of money poured into corrupt foreign governments, leading to worse environmental degradation. Unearned wealth transfers between classes or continents are poisonous to all parties. Let’s not do further damage to the human environment.