June 07, 2006

EH - 112 : Climate Change

"What will be lacking is hard science because by virtue of being hard it is not very popular and is not conducive to simplification, does not provide vivid gut-wrenching imagery and is veiled in difficult mathematical formulas, concepts and reams of numerical data."

George Giles takes the global warming folks and Al Gore to task. Dr. Lenny tends to agree with most of his prose, but the idea of writing off science because of funding sources is absurd, as fedgov is the only game in town. Everything that is called science can only be written off in a process of checking and cross-checking that is designed to reproduce known facts and eliminate results which are not duplicatible. By constraining variable, we can isolate one area from other and look to see whether the desired effects are reproduced (or obtained, if you are on the cutting edge).

But current science funding is a reward system for doctrine and if an honest scientist follows the doctrine, he can do very valid work with-in the system in the narrow focus of his own field. The problem comes from the failure to reel most scientists back in and make them deal with the validity of their assumptions, especially across fields. Reread the opening paragraph - the quoted one. Notice the emphasis on the word hard and the image of gut-wrenching that it takes to understand this system. Now ask a four year old why the wind blows. I bet the four year old has a better answer than most climate change scientists. Science is easy - it is propaganda that makes the sheeple think it is hard.

Chemistry with doctor lenny is an easy science - the molecules are mostly dumb and do what they are expected to do. If you use a critical eye to ask yourself - what is happening that i can explain by using the 'most excited element will react first theory' , then you can suggest a formula that changes the form of the element in question. If changing the form provides the required function, then the chemistry reaction has succeeded. Easy. Now go use chemistry, by unstopping a drain or killing an evil refrigerator smell. That's enough 'hard' science for the time being.

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