Thursday, May 01, 2008

Heads it's global warming, tails it's global warming


An interesting post over at Choice Cuts discussing some tax-funded eco-scientists; they're claiming that if over the next ten years global temperatures go down, stay the same, or go up, it will definitely be global warming to blame.

So, Sir Karl Popper, God rest your Austrian soul, I hereby challenge you to falsify your way out of that one. Good luck!

UPDATE: I have added the following section to the Wikipedia page on falsifiability. I even tried, despite myself, to be even handed! Let's see how long the piece lasts in an un-shredded state before the eco-worshippers get themselves into a frothy lather about it (thus, of course, proving the point).
Global Warming
Both believers and deniers of global warming could also be accused of falling into a Popperian lack of falsifiability and the related Kuhnian trap of the locked paradigm (or in this case, two locked paradigms). In recent years, the theory of global warming caused by mankind has become extremely popular to the point where no matter what evidence is presented, whether on variations in the sun's energy output, or various other ice age volatility models caused by the circulation of the solar system through galactic dust clouds, it generally "proves" global warming caused by mankind to the believers, or "disproves" global warming caused by mankind to the deniers. For instance, to the majority camp of believers, the evidence generally points to global warming caused by mankind, whether the various bodies of factual evidence indicate global warming, global temperature stasis, or even global cooling; the minority denier camp use the exact same evidence to argue the opposite case. Unfortunately, science has become very emotively intertwined in this arena with politics and state funding of science, as well as a whole range politically correct or politically incorrect orthodoxies, both for the global warming believers and the global warming deniers. This whole area may take several decades to unravel with independent Popperian-minded scientists using a falsification-based approach to get to the truth of the matter (or at least, to the least false conclusion).

2 comments:

Wadard said...

The most effective thing you can do to ramp up the fight against climate change is to go and take on a AGW denial propagandist, on their own astroturf.

Jack Maturin said...

Well, come on then wadard, stop posing and start tackling. I'm happy to defend my position on global warming, as caused by mankind, in any way you like. What have you got?

In the meantime, if you fancy a REAL challenge, try tackling my climate change mentor, Uncle George Reisman. I think you'll particularly like this one:

ENVIRONMENTALISM IS RECYCLED COMMUNISM AND NAZISM

If that whets your appetite, try these ones on, too:

A Word to Environmentalists
The Nature of Environmentalism
IS THERE A PROBLEM? BLAME GLOBAL WARMING

When you and your army of trolls have worked your way through that lot, let me know, and I can send you some more.