Braunstein Speaks

‘Settled Science’

“You keep using that word [‘inconceivable’]. I do not think it means what you think it means” – Inigo Montoya, “The Princess Bride.”

“World May Not be Warming, Say Scientists” – Times of London, February 14th, 2010.

From “settled science” to “we really don’t know what we’re talking about” in a period of five years. In Al Gore’s 2006 science-fiction documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” all I remember—except for melting glaciers and suicidal polar bears—is the “hockey stick” graph of temperature change that was so abrupt, Gore had to mount a man-lift to reach the top of it.

One thing that is “settled science,” however, is that politicians need votes to stay in office. Sometime in the past, we are told, politicians were once leaders who directed national policy. These days, we all understand that politicians are followers who are all too eager to pander to those same voters—be they right or wrong.

If a majority of voters feel that “global warming” is real, then woe betide that politician who does not climb on the “let’s declare carbon dioxide a ‘pollutant’” bandwagon. Moreover, the statists in government (most Democrats) find that the “global warming” frenzy is the perfect medium to seize control of all aspects of power generation and manufacturing in the United States.

Even the most vocal “climate change” advocates (after several seasons of cool summers and even cooler winters, they had to rename “global warming” “climate change” to avoid being laughed at) now openly acknowledge that there hasn’t been any evidence of “warming” or “change,” these past 15 years—quarterly seasonal change being the exception.

When Al Gore’s “hockey stick” is adjusted to reality, we see regular weather swings over the past 1000 years, such as the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age.

With the climate scientists in full retreat, and polls finding that the electorate sees “global warming” as the last thing that they are concerned with, it won’t be long until the politicians fall in line with this “new reality” formed by changing voter sentiments.

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