Fighting inefficiency is a good thing and it will reduce the volume of CO2 going into the atmosphere. However, though I support environmental initiatives I am upset by the attempts by many environmentalists to put an end to a rational and scientific discussion of climate change.
Science Technology : NDP wants to ban the incadescent light bulb
News Opinion : Canadian "denier" threatened with death -- and it is not reported in Canadian news
Technorati Tags: Timothy Ball, Canada, Climate Change, death threats, New Democratic Party, NDP, Kyoto
Science Technology : NDP wants to ban the incadescent light bulb
An NDP MP is putting forward a bill to phase out incandescent light bulbs. Bravo!
News Opinion : Canadian "denier" threatened with death -- and it is not reported in Canadian news
A Canadian scientist questions the science of climate change, and he begins receiving death threats. I read about it in a British newspaper. Isn't this newsworthy in Canada? I found this in a British paper:
Technorati Tags: Timothy Ball, Canada, Climate Change, death threats, New Democratic Party, NDP, Kyoto
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3 comments:
Timothy Ball should not be threatened with death. That said, to describe timothy Ball as a scientist and some kind of expert on climate change is a stretch. I believe he is not teaching now and hasn't in a long time. He also has area of knowledge in geography and not climate change. He is also associated with an organization that is funded by oil.
DeSmogBlog noted that article; they don't like him there and often point out quite a few things he has said which did not accord with reality. Still they do not wish him dead.
They point out "The longer he lives, the more evidence of anthropogenic climate change he is forced to witness, the more complete will be his humiliation."
Jan & Holly: My point with all of this is simply that there is an element of dogmatism within the environmental movement that stifles debate.
Holly: I would be interested to compare the credentials of Tim Ball to David Suzuki who is a geneticist and not a climatologist.
All that aside, there is a certain appeal in attacking and publicising a person's credentials, but it is ultimately fallacious. A person's ideas in a real debate are accepted on their value not based on the person making them.
DeSmogBlog is one big ad hominem fallacy. Just because a person is associated with oil doesn't make a person wrong. There is no site that I know of that links proponents of climate change to the sierra club or to Green Peace. Such an association doesn't make the person wrong or a bad scientist but it "taints" the person as much as an association with oil does - but only if you have a preconceived notion about the debate. Of course if you have a preconceived idea then you are in a polemic discussion and not a rational scientific discussion.
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