To: Don Hurst who wrote (2531 ) 5/24/2011 11:13:02 PM From: joseffy 2 Recommendations Respond to When A “Distinguished Scholar” Throws A Tantrumthemoderatevoice.com ”Climate change” is vague enough that literally every single weather event — hotter, colder, wetter, and drier — can simultaneously be attributed to it . So no longer do Earth-is-ending scaremongers need to awkwardly switch from saying “global warming doesn’t predict specific events” during a snowstorm to saying “global warming predicted this would happen” during every heat wave.anyone who is educated in the basics of the scientific method (which Professor McKibben seems to ignore in his rant) knows that when a theory claims to explain every possible outcome, in reality it is an “ad hoc” theory that explains nothing except its adherents’ devotion to it. Such a theory may be similar to fanatical religious faith, but it can no longer claim to be scientific. It is also the very height of callousness to exploit the suffering of Joplin, Missouri residents for an anti-corporation ideological crusade , but hey, he’s got tenure, so who cares?When over-the-top hysterics like Prof. McKibben abandon their professionalism and embrace the easy emotion of anti-corporation ranting and the snooty “green lifestyle” of cushy tenured academics for whom high gas prices are an abstraction instead of an impediment, the ability to have a real discussion about what is actually possible is lost.Prof. McKibben successfully implemented the shift to “climate change” in his article, but he neglected to deep-six the discredited “global warming” label on his website. Oops. But such oversights probably don’t matter, because not only does he have tenure, he is also “politically correct”. Therefore, any criticism of him or his politics is, of course, automatically offensive and verboten.
