Deja vu from the Climate Change Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:
Scientific societies and scientists have released statements and studies showing the growing consensus on climate change science. A common objection to taking action to reduce our heat-trapping emissions has been uncertainty within the scientific community on whether or not global warming is happening and if it is caused by humans. However, there is now an overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is indeed happening and humans are contributing to it. Below are links to scriptures documents and statements attesting to this consensus.
Oops, how did that strikethrough get in there?
Moving along, is there any area of scientific inquiry where the proponents of a theory are as desperate to shut down debate as the climate change alarmists? Any other field that has the arrogance to say that "the science is settled"(as if the science on any subject as big and complex as climate could be considered settled), like these guys? I can't think of any.
It might be a bit of a headscratcher unless one understands that the Union of Concerned Scientists is not a science organization at all, but a hard left political advocacy group. One that spent $568,907 lobbying Congress for its left wing agenda. There's nothing wrong with that of course, just don't make the mistake of thinking that it's the voice of politically disinterested scientists.
For the record I think the world has warmed slightly, but it is very debatable just how much, why, and what it means for the future. There are plenty of reputable scientists who agree with that position. There is no "consensus."
What the UCS is demanding is that their consensus be declared "the" consensus. What they are doing is not science, but marketing.
Update: Watts Up With That has the timely case in point. A blogger for Discover.com, Chris Mooney, promoted a new piece he had written for another site and quoted from it:
As Emanuel explained in his written testimony, today’s MIT atmospheric-sciences students can do “hand calculations or use simple models” to show why global warming is a serious concern. Such calculations show that the planet will warm somewhere between 2.7 and 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit if we allow carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to double. It’s a result, Emanuel observed, that scientists have understood at least since 1979, when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences released the first in what are now shelves of studies of the subject. You don’t get an atmospheric-sciences degree at MIT–with a climate focus, anyway–if you can’t show on the back of an envelope what much of Congress now calls into question.
The funny thing is that when the very first commenter politely asked to see that simple calculation, the response from Mooney was this:
"Nullius, this is a warning. Your comments are verging on hectoring at this point."
Three more comments were allowed and then comments were closed on the post. No calculation presented for scrutiny, Mooney just shut down the discussion. I don't want to paint with too broad a brush, but such lack of transparency is not uncommon among the climate alarmists.
Huh. You know, maybe this simple calculation exists, but you must be a member of the Climate Change ClubTM and have the MIT double-secret decoder ring. Got a better explanation?
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