Who Can You Trust When It Comes To Global Warming?
Mike Catherall
February 01, 2007
The American Democrats have started pointing fingers at the Republicans about hiding and spinning information regarding climate change and putting the screws to the scientists. This could be true.
The Republicans are saying that all these empty accusations are hype to further the Democrats own interests in a newly appointed cabinet. This too, could be true.
This leaves the rest of the world wondering who to believe and what agendas are legitimate. And we are paralyzed with mistrust.
The problem with this is that the Democrats have decided to hinge their platform on sustainability. When Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth, they had a pretty powerful wave to ride on, as well.
But calling scientists into suspicion seems as if they have shot themselves in the foot. Because if people can’t trust the studies, why should they trust the global warming data they keep throwing our way?
Like the media, with whom public faith has already waned, the public needs to feel that scientists are politically impartial in their findings. We need to know that scientific research is actually legitimate, because it is the only objective anchor to our reality.
This is why they have the scientific method. Scientists seek to discover and present the truth in the world. We like to think they are passionate about this, so we trust them. Their agendas are beyond this lifetime.
But calling into question that very trust, by the very people who stand to profit from it, is demoralizing.
After all, if you were a scientist working in Antarctica, devoting your life to something like the betterment of the world, wouldn’t you be more interested in getting the truth out than wondering where your next funding was coming from? And wouldn’t the two ideals be synonymous?
Or is oil exploration and carbon testing of sub-arctic ice samples sponsored by the same Big Oil conglomerate? A kind of two-in-one, green-wash and plunder foul swoop? Possibly.
Whatever the case, when sustainability and global warming have hit the point where you have to question every article, study or word that you read, what’s next? Because if you can’t trust the two professions most revered for their impartial stance, who can you trust?
The Republicans are saying that all these empty accusations are hype to further the Democrats own interests in a newly appointed cabinet. This too, could be true.
This leaves the rest of the world wondering who to believe and what agendas are legitimate. And we are paralyzed with mistrust.
The problem with this is that the Democrats have decided to hinge their platform on sustainability. When Al Gore released An Inconvenient Truth, they had a pretty powerful wave to ride on, as well.
But calling scientists into suspicion seems as if they have shot themselves in the foot. Because if people can’t trust the studies, why should they trust the global warming data they keep throwing our way?
Like the media, with whom public faith has already waned, the public needs to feel that scientists are politically impartial in their findings. We need to know that scientific research is actually legitimate, because it is the only objective anchor to our reality.
This is why they have the scientific method. Scientists seek to discover and present the truth in the world. We like to think they are passionate about this, so we trust them. Their agendas are beyond this lifetime.
But calling into question that very trust, by the very people who stand to profit from it, is demoralizing.
After all, if you were a scientist working in Antarctica, devoting your life to something like the betterment of the world, wouldn’t you be more interested in getting the truth out than wondering where your next funding was coming from? And wouldn’t the two ideals be synonymous?
Or is oil exploration and carbon testing of sub-arctic ice samples sponsored by the same Big Oil conglomerate? A kind of two-in-one, green-wash and plunder foul swoop? Possibly.
Whatever the case, when sustainability and global warming have hit the point where you have to question every article, study or word that you read, what’s next? Because if you can’t trust the two professions most revered for their impartial stance, who can you trust?
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