The (Some) Science Guys
From the first Earth Day back in the 70s to the March for Science this year, the melding of enviro-politics and scientism is complete. Scientism – it’s the religious arm of science by exception. It demeans true science by denying the science that does not align with green politics. Organizers of the March for Science voice support for the rigors of science and replicating results. A large contingent of participants do not.
The crusades against fossil energy sources and marches for so-called science have at their core mere projections…computer models…theories which cannot and will not be proven. Masquerading as climate scientists are self-anointed “experts.” One such is the former Vice President, Albert Gore, Jr. Tobacco farmer, politico, lockbox advocate and now climate guru. Mr. Gore specializes in gigantic carbon footprints for which he “pays” in so-called carbon offsets.
Another is the lab-coated former stand-up comedian, Bill Nye, self-identified as The Science Guy. He’s turned his Mechanical Engineering degree into a TV shtick that began with kiddie science stuff and has since migrated to debating Tucker Carlson, et al, on the finer points of the cognitive dissonance of “deniers” and other charlatans. This from an academic discipline that delivered such notable advances as the allen wrench and the non-slamming toilet seat lid. No climate education evident
This blithe dismissal of true science has a long history. It was evidenced in the recently-aired Genius television series centering on Albert Einstein. It was rife with similar political intimidation. German science versus Jewish science, J. Edgar Hoover attacking Einstein’s loyalty and veracity alleging his sympathies lay with Communism. The science became incidental afterthought, Nazi science was uber alles and Hoover’s obsession trumped Einstein’s genius.
And then there’s the science of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Where are the believers in science when the safety of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are called into question by anti-fossil fuel extremists? If peer-reviewed science is the standard, you’d think study after peer-reviewed academic study would cause the so-called science advocates to leap to its defense, but since that doesn’t fit with their dominant political ideology, the industry is attacked ad infinitum with virtually zero support from this community. Let’s also make sure the fact that natural gas is one of the chief drivers of reduced carbon emissions in the US is roundly ignored.
These truths don’t fit the scientism model. Nor does the incongruity of the following statements. A hole must be drilled, materials extracted from spaceship Earth, said materials must be shipped to plants to be transformed into a usable commercial product. All bad!
But funny thing, the same process must be followed to produce windmills and solar panels. All great! Bless that science, but damn that oil and gas science!
It’s melting glaciers and look at the loss of sea ice! The oceans will rise, we have projections! 97% agree! Don’t you get it??
Not so fast — An expedition designed to gather evidence of global warming and “climate change” in the Arctic was canceled last month after a humiliating discovery was made: There was so much ice in the Arctic that the icebreaker it was going to use was needed elsewhere. The Winnipeg Press reported. Scientists were caught off guard when the true ice conditions were different from their predictions, which took place only months ago… yet they absolutely know how the climate will behave over the next 100 years.
“The Science Team of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen has cancelled the first leg of the 2017 Expedition due to complications associated with the southward motion of hazardous Arctic sea ice,” the news site Science Daily reported. Keep in mind that the Amundsen is no lightweight ship. “It’s the second most powerful icebreaker in the country and we had trouble getting through the sea ice,” David Barber, an arctic research expert, told the Free Press.
The saga had another chapter — “There was the Ship of Fools expedition in which an Australian climate researcher called Chris Turkey had to call off an expedition to the melting Antarctic after his ship got stuck in the ice,” recalled Breitbart News contributor James Delingpole.
The original science (not scientism) guys, like Mr. Wizard on TV in the 50s, were content with beakers, Bunsen burners and test tubes. They stuck to honest science, conducting experiments, testing theory and documenting results, engaging in objective inquiry.
Our latter day “science guys” are not tethered to scientific discipline. They in fact mirror another mid-20th century show biz character, The Music Man’s Professor Harold Hill, peddler, drummer and shill for musical instruments. Sell them to the rubes in River City, sell them uniforms, peddle that bogeyman — “There’s trouble right here in River City, that starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool!”
Today the barkers and shills are on the climate change pitch — “There’s trouble right here on Planet Earth, that starts with E and that rhymes with C and that stands for Climate!” They lead the marches for convenient science and the self-righteous protests with green lemmings in tow. The overlay is a nearly perfect fit: