When Scientists Lose Their Way

Monday, August 1st, 2016 @ 12:00PM

Objectivity – it is the absolute bedrock of science. There is no notion, idea, hypothesis, concept, principle, axiom, maxim, theory, or law more fundamental to science than objectivity. In fact, in the absence of objectivity, science does not exist. Call it what you want, but it ain’t science.

So what happens when scientists in general lose their objectivity? They become anything but scientists – beach bums, flower children, Birkenstock-wearing granola munchers, bearded recluses in self-imposed exile from the outside world. A sad thing indeed.

And what happens when climate scientists in particular lose their objectivity? Well, they become global warming alarmists and Al Gore disciples of course. An embarrassing thing indeed. And dangerous to boot.

Science, you see, is about purity – at least it is supposed to be. That is, scientific endeavor in its purist sense is supposed to be utterly free of bias and subjectivity. It is supposed to be a search for absolute truth, free of external influences. Science is not about right or wrong but, rather, about what “is” – period.

So how is it, then, that so many climate scientists missed this most fundamental paradigm of science taught on day-one at scientist school? Who knows? The only thing that’s for certain is that they missed it. For many years now, these “scientists” (I’m using the term loosely here) have spun tails of doom regarding the impending death of all things living due to the much ballyhooed and seriously over-hyped phenomenon known as global warming – otherwise known as the great “the sky is falling” sham of modern times.

So convinced were they of their own infallibility that these climate scientists and their non-scientist cohorts (known collectively as the “global warming community”) began espousing the notion that a “consensus” had been reached among both the scientific and world communities in support of the global warming hypothesis and that the subject was no longer open for discussion.

Then came the opportunists – politicians such as Al Gore and others bent on enhancing their reputations; so called “green” company CEOs and investors bent on enlarging their bank accounts; and Hollywood entertainers, intoxicated with moral superiority, bent on educating the unwashed masses. These people looked down their profligate noses with disdain and disgust at us mere commoners driving our cars to work each day in an effort to make an honest living. To them, we were the cause of the coming global warming calamity.

There was only one tiny little inconvenient problem with the global warming religion – it was a sham. And seeing the collapse of this new-age secular raison d’etre has, for me, been a thing of beauty. Why? Not so much because I dislike opportunists like the Al Gores and the Barbara Striesands (how many acres of trees did she have bulldozed to build her little “retreat” in Aspen?) of the world but, rather, because I believe in science. I understand that science without objectivity is not science at all. I understand that science and politics don’t mix. And I understand, as all real scientists do, that, in science, the subject, whatever it may be, is always open for discussion.

A recent paper released by the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (yep, the same institution whose scientists were found to have altered climate data to support their view of global warming) proves my point. The paper, based upon climate data collected from more than 30,000 measuring stations, confirms that the planet has not warmed in the last 15 years and that the trend in rising world temperatures ended in 1997. How utterly inconvenient for the once infallible and thoroughly convinced global warming crowd? So much for a subject not being open for discussion.

Unfortunately, the global warming scam has cost the world community dearly: billions of dollars spent on bogus research projects that could have been spent on meaningful scientific investigation; billions in tax dollars spent on carbon reduction initiatives; billions of dollars lost on investments in “green” companies. The most unfortunate aspect of the scam, however, has been the complete subversion of science itself. That’s what happens when scientists lose their way.

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