Climate Science
Aug. 26th, 2019 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloAnother very hot day. I gather records are being broken. In spite of there being no breeze to speak of the trees- some of them anyway- are quietly, unobtrusively, shedding leaves.
I've no doubt climate change is happening. However I belong to the school- one that's gathering strength- that says that what we're seeing is the brief period of warming that precedes a mini-ice age. I'm no scientist and all my information is taken on trust (apparently you need to examine the ice cores) so I've not been shouting about it. If you're going up against an orthodoxy it's advisable to have evidence to back one's opinion. The same applies if you're defending an orthodoxy- perhaps even more so- because orthodoxies usually turn out to be wrong.
"Settled science"? Pah. There's no such thing. The medievals thought their science was settled and along came Galileo. The Newtonians thought the same and along came Quantum Mechanics. The history of science is littered with examples of very clever people making very silly, soon to be falsified pronouncements- and all because of an over confidence which looks a lot like intellectual cowardice. The idea that any idea in any field of human knowledge is fixed for ever is essentially unscientific. The most we ever have are working hypotheses.
I've no doubt climate change is happening. However I belong to the school- one that's gathering strength- that says that what we're seeing is the brief period of warming that precedes a mini-ice age. I'm no scientist and all my information is taken on trust (apparently you need to examine the ice cores) so I've not been shouting about it. If you're going up against an orthodoxy it's advisable to have evidence to back one's opinion. The same applies if you're defending an orthodoxy- perhaps even more so- because orthodoxies usually turn out to be wrong.
"Settled science"? Pah. There's no such thing. The medievals thought their science was settled and along came Galileo. The Newtonians thought the same and along came Quantum Mechanics. The history of science is littered with examples of very clever people making very silly, soon to be falsified pronouncements- and all because of an over confidence which looks a lot like intellectual cowardice. The idea that any idea in any field of human knowledge is fixed for ever is essentially unscientific. The most we ever have are working hypotheses.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-26 01:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-26 03:24 pm (UTC)