I’m a few days late but this afternoon I caught on to the controversy when a hacker stole 10 years of email from a prominent climate change research center that seem to suggest that some climate change data was doctored or put in a context that made the global warming seem worse than it was among other things. Of course both sides of the issue are putting their spin on what happened but it was another thing to confirm for me that my skepticism on climate change seems to be well placed. The skepticism doesn’t stem from the fact that I think there is no global warming and want to be able to drive an SUV, but from other areas.

I’m still not sure why global warming (something that on the whole still has a lot of questions surrounding it and needs much more research) has to be tied to global stewardship …I think the stewardship part could and should be promoted and promulgated even if the climate temperature is in question (regardless of whether there is global warming or we are the cause of global warming we still need alternative renewable resources, recycling, taking care of our environment, and thinking about the future). My skepticism is also piqued when I walk into the store and see ‘green’ everything, (regardless of whether it is actually green or not) and realize the amount of money that many stand to lose if the fear of global change and the necessity of action in the form of consumerism isn’t hanging over our heads. My skepticism also stems generally from how politically hot the issue is, how so many people expect that warming is a given unquestioningly and many others for equally silly reasons (political leanings?) say it’s all bunk.

I don’t think that something like this scandal is the ‘a-ha’ proof that there really is no global warming, but just the unsurprising confirmation that scientists, like everyone else, will ‘interpret’ data in favour of whatever particular view they hold, and may feel inclined and even justified in ‘tweaking’ things when they don’t seem to be going their way.

“…we dont have a baloney detection device in our brain, so we have to do science. Science is the only and best tool we have for understanding true from false patterns, and for figuring out how the world really is.” – Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer’s a funny and brilliant guy but I’d have to disagree with his quote in as much as science being the ‘only and best tool’ we have for finding out how the world really is. I think this scandal is an example why I think it unbalanced to consider science the only and best. (Certainly philosophy would have many and varied things to say about it being the ‘only’ way of finding out how the world really is.) Science as a method, as an idea, may appear infallible, but the humans who carry out the enterprise certainly aren’t. It’s not just a matter of looking at numbers or evidence and not being able to argue as some suggest. Bias, belief, presupposition, and politics among other things, all play a part in science; in what is presented to us as evidence, all the time. Thankfully, for the most part scientific method works wonderfully despite human foibles but I believe science is working more optimally when it’s as free as possible from politics and the public hot button topics which is probably the main reason I’m more skeptical around issues like these.