I believe it was jbe who challenged the credibility of these scientists.
I did no such thing, Michael. If you will recall, I was responding to your insistence that the press ignored Dr. Singer and his petition. First, I said that this might not after all be the case. Then I added:
And if it should turn out that Dr. Singer is indeed not taken seriously by the media,
that is probably because he is not taken seriously by his peers -- the top scientists in
his field. A good science reporter is not just going to paraphrase a news release;
he/she will check it out with other sources. And the other sources are other
scientists. Then the question would be: why don't his peers take him seriously?
Professional jealousy? Competition for grant money? Profound scientific
disagreement? Suspicion of his close ties with polluting businesses? There can be
any number of reasons. But I would suggest that the least likely reason is that the
other scientists are "liberals". Politics and science do not, or at least should not, mix.
As for the 17,000 scientists who signed the petition, only 2/3 of them have advanced
degrees. [This is specifically stated on the site you posted.] And who are they? I don't know. Do you? Are they better qualified than the
scientists with whom they disagree?
#reply-6387093
And, in that same post (as in earlier ones), I was very careful to point out that I do not know enough about the issue of global warming to have an informed "position" on it myself:
I repeat, that I am not
an expert on global warming; I am not even a scientist; I have never followed the
debate that closely. I just skim the newspaper, like everyone else.
And incidentally, I later found a site that indicates to me that the major objections to Dr. Singer do indeed seem to be based on his ties with industry. (Does not mean they are right, of course.)
ozone.org
I now bow out of this "argument", and would like to repeat a question that I posed several days ago:
To David and Thread: Is there any subject we can discuss on this thread that will not
turn into an ideological hit-and-run guerrilla war? If so, looking for suggestions...
jbe
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