More ridicule directed at those benighted Tea Party rubes: It seems they are skeptical of man-made global warming ( now called climate change). Of course, the earth's climate has been changing for the past 4 billion years and will continue to change for another 4 billion when the sun becomes a red giant or when the Milky Way collides with the Andromeda Galaxy, which ever comes first. As usual, no evidence is cited for this assertion about Tea Party beliefs, but it may well be correct. According to the widely read and cited study by Dan M. Kahan, professor of Law at Yale University, Tea Partiers have a greater (affinity for understanding scientific concepts) than others.
Perhaps the scientifically literate, including the Tea Partiers, can read and understand a thermometer. Perhaps some consult a reputable and honest source for climatological information such as the satellite measurements of global temperatures, updated monthly by the University of Alabama at Huntsville under the supervision of Dr. Roy Spencer. Others may know climate history, including the Medieval Warm Period that ended about AD 1400, as analyzed by M.K. Hughes. Temperatures were much higher then than now. Greenland was indeed green and Viking farming settlements continued to flourish there until that date; their ruins still survive. Some may have read about the falsification of climatic data by the climate-change establishment revealed by the e-mails sent and received by the University of East Anglia, discussed in Brian Sussman's "Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam." Perhaps they remember the myriads of climatic predictions (Al Gore) that have been proven false, as recorded by R. Bailey in "Eco-scam: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse."
In a widely read article in the Australian journal "Quadrant," Garth Paltridge, the former chief research scientist at the Australian Division of Atmospheric Research has written that man-made global warning theories, and the policies and practices based on them, "may be the costliest scientific mistake ever visited on humanity." He further notes that, "in its efforts to promote the cause [man-made global warming] it risks, perhaps for centuries to come, the unique and hard-won reputation for honesty which is the basis of society's respect for scientific endeavour."
Doubtless, the Australians will be ridiculed next. They are also far ahead of Americans in math and science [PISA, Program for International Student Assessment]. Science is based on facts and evidence. From these, theories may be based which are subject to continuous rigorous testing. Science is not based on ignorance, falsified data or rigid dogma.
If the science profession bemoans the distrust of science by a majority of Americans, they should look at itself in the mirror.
Donald Engels
Fayetteville
Commentary on 03/29/2014