Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid
By Mark Hendrickson
For over 20 years, a number of politicians have sought to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and/or raise taxes on such fuels for the stated purpose of trying to save the world from catastrophic climate change. They insist that scientific research has proved conclusively the validity of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis which is now called “climate change.” Increasingly, people have their doubts about whether this is so.
Why? I don’t think it is because people don’t respect science. On the contrary, people generally have a high regard for science due to the multitude of ways science has benefited the human race. What many people distrust is the palpable politicization of science by climate alarmists.
People naturally have had trouble enough believing the alarmist line that carbon dioxide inevitably raises global temperatures. The simple reason for this belief is that there has been no global warming for the past 16 years in spite of rising atmospheric concentrations of CO2. However, the alarmists have shot themselves in the foot, weakening their case and diminishing their own credibility by their own misconduct.
[…]
Scientists and even professors in social sciences have told of colleagues or university officials warning them that non-alarmist research could damage their careers or cause the loss of a government grant. In his book “Eco-Tyranny,” Brian Sussman exposed the Society of Environmental Journalists, a group that provides lists of scientists that either are recommended for interviews (alarmists) or not recommended (skeptics).
[…]
It is clear that politicians are willing to go to great lengths to produce the best “science” money can buy in order to “prove” the need for major action on the climate change front. In fact, our own government alone has spent tens of billions of dollars in support of “climate change.” Why do both the UN and American liberals support the alarmist scenario so strongly? Part of their agenda is to redistribute wealth by curbing American energy consumption (the more energy a society consumes, the wealthier it tends to be) and part of it is the fact that western governments are desperate for more revenue to fund their ambitious wealth redistribution plans. A tax on energy would be the mother of all excise taxes, producing an immense stream of additional government revenues.
[…]
Here is the bottom line: If we truly want public policies grounded on sound science, our best chance is to get government money out of the process. Science, like religion, is a search for truth (the main difference being that scientists are seeking physical truth whereas religionists often are more concerned with metaphysical truth). The U.S. has a well-established tradition of keeping church and state separate for the purpose of preventing religion from being corrupted by politics. That is as it should be. The contorted political shenanigans and, yes, corruptions, of climate science make it plain that it is now time to erect a wall of separation between science and state. Science is too important for us to allow it to be hijacked by political and economic special interests. It is time to remove federal funding from scientific research, liberate scientific research from political influence, get scientists off the federal gravy train, and let the market decide what scientific work is worthy of being funded. The statement, “we’re toast,” is far more likely to be true if politics dominates science than from using fossil fuels to improve our lives.
Full article at: Forbes
Against the Grain 