Re: Climategate and Government-Driven Science :: Government-supported global warming research does what government always does: it discourages any true independent thought
Mack the Knife
Different people have a completely different definition of
"environmentalism." To many, you apparently included, it's a movement
that gets in your way by attempting to control what you can do. In
general, people who don't want to think about the consequences of some
of their actions fall into this group. Uneducated people generally
hate environmentalists because they don't understand the science
behind it. When they hear that the fate of a particular species
hinges on limiting human behavior, they strenuously object. They
believe that human beings are the only species that really counts and
that all others should sink or swim based on their ability to tolerate
our rapidly expanding numbers and infrastructure. If riding your dirt
bike or your 4-wheeler is going to negatively impact some animal in
the wild, you don't give a fuck. All you want to do is have fun. If
developing a piece of natural habitat is going to put dollars into the
bank account of some wealthy developer, you probably don't care if it
negatively impacts the species currently residing there. So long as
more second and third homes are built for wealthy people, who cares?
What environmentalism really is and should be is a respect and
love for the natural world. Anyone who loves the outdoors ought to
understand that much, and if they don't, they need to get educated
quickly. If they resist gaining a greater understanding, then perhaps
their access to sensitive areas must be infringed for the sake of
everyone else. It's not about politics, except in the sense that
people who want to exploit the land without any restrictions being
placed on them must be fought politically in order to protect natural
values. If we didn't prevent wholesale destruction of nature, then
every habitable part of the earth will be developed in order to make
more money for rich people who don't give a damn about anything or
anyone but themselves.
That much said, the climate change crowd, I think, have been a
much greater threat to natural values than someone like yourself, and
that is one of the primary reasons I suspect their motives and reject
their point of view. Almost single-handedly, they have destroyed
whatever credibility the environmental movement spent decades slowly
building up. It is no surprise to me that climategate is upon us.
I've been speaking out against the "global warming" hysteria for
twenty years. Have you? Or did you just get religion in the last few
months or years? How much effort have you put into fighting these
people? Relatively little, I suspect.
However, to decide that simply because a bunch of morons with little
scientific understanding are wrong about something means you can
ignore all environmental reasoning is tantamount to throwing the baby
out with the bath water. These fools will have to be tolerated until
their influence fades, and by all accounts, that is about to happen.
They were set to impose upon the world some of the biggest horseshit
we've yet encountered. Just before it could happen, they had the pins
knocked out from under them. Hip hip hooray!
On the other hand, the rapidly expanding human population does
give cause for concern. Each species is limited by the carrying
capacity of a particular ecosystem (or in our case, by the biosphere,
itself) to support that species. When the carrying capacity for a
species is reached or exceeded, massive die-offs of individuals in
that species routinely occur. The human population is at the upper
limit of the earth's ability to sustain it. We can expect pandemics,
natural disasters, and other catastrophes to begin to whittle our
inflated numbers down. I can't accept "global warming" but I must
consider that regional warming due to localized population increases
may be occurring. That much, to me, makes perfect sense. At the same
time, however, regional cooling in other areas is probably evening
things out globally.