Quote:
Originally posted by Computer Hobbyist
The research scientists may not all drive BMWs and live in million dollar homes, but the department chairs and presidents of the universities, and presidents of research companies who hire them drive nice cars and live in fancy homes. Given the general lack of integrity we have seen from tobacco company scientists, oil company scientists, environmental scientists and, pharmaceutical company scientists, I wonder if anybody is willing to speak the truth.
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I see two possibilities here:
1) A majority of scientists who have spent years in their field and put forth their work in peer-reviewed scientific journals believe that there is enough evidence of the phenomena of global warming.
2) There is a conspiracy involving these people to get more money by falsifying evidence.
I'm willing to bet on #1. True, some industries, especially the tobacco industry, have lied; however, their lies were easily debunked in a peer-reviewed environment, and we all knew they were working for the tobacco compnanies themselves. As for cold fusion, that too was a fiasco that was not in a peer-reviewed journal: Pons and Fleischmann announced cold fusion to the world without having anything to back it up, and they certainly paid the price.
When politicians or other laypeople comment on global warming, why do we listen? Would we listen if pundits and politicians discussed the best methods of performing open-heart surgery? I doubt it; we would know that they have no idea what they are talking about. The fact that the implications of global warming are political should not drag the actual science of global warming into the realm of politics. I just don't think that men and women who have studied for years to find empirical truth would be in on some giant worldwide conspiracy to pass lies off as truth. Possible? Yes. Will I believe it because Rush blabs about it? Certainly not.