n_huffhines
What's it gonna cost?
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2009
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This is one of the best things I've ever read, and I don't know how it didn't get on my radar until today. Crichton is so on point. In summary, he doesn't really dispute the legitimacy of the threat of global warming, he talks about is proper science and how science has been politicized, and it's amazing.
One of his best points is that "skeptic" has become a pejorative term within the scientific community when skepticism should be a virtue. The greatest scientific breakthroughs in history have been brought about by skeptics.
Some of my favorite quotes:
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/Crichton2003.pdf
One of his best points is that "skeptic" has become a pejorative term within the scientific community when skepticism should be a virtue. The greatest scientific breakthroughs in history have been brought about by skeptics.
Some of my favorite quotes:
Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough. Nobody says the consensus of scientists agrees that E=mc2.
Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now were asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future? And make financial investments based on that prediction? Has everybody lost their minds?
Look: If I was selling stock in a company that I told you would be profitable in 2100, would you buy it? Or would you think the idea was so crazy that it must be a scam?
...in 2000, France was getting 80% its power from an energy source that was unknown in 1900...[we] didnt know what an atom was.
You tell me you can predict the world of 2100. Tell me its even worth thinking about. Our models just carry the present into the future. Theyre bound to be wrong. Everybody who gives a moments thought knows it.
http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/Publications/PDF_Papers/Crichton2003.pdf