Re: Green vehicles of 2007

Robert Reynolds:

A lot of crap gets passed off as peer reviewed science. It happens
in a great many different fields. Take medicine for instance.

I don't know anything about drug trials so I don't know if they are
peer reviewed or not but I disagree with your blanket statement that a
lot of crap is passed off as peer reviewed science. It's possible that
a peer reviewed study can be wrong, no doubt about it. Scientists make
their best educated guesses with the data and knowledge available. If
that data or knowledge changes in some profound way then science
sometimes takes a leap forward. Consider how many times science has had
imperfect or even incorrect understanding of physics, chemistry, and
biology, yet each new discovery allows us to build on the past, not
erase it and start over.

If
you don't like that example, think about all of the research grants
funded by government to study the effects of pink light in poultry
houses or the relative buoyancy of green balloons, or whatever
nonsense they come up with next week. Sure, it's science. But what
does it really mean?

Who cares? They are basically pork projects that are passed year in and
year out by both political parties. But occasionally one of them pays
off and makes a discovery that is important to that industry or
sometimes an unrelated industry. Hell, several studies have been done
to figure out that chicken soup makes you feel better when you have a
cold. We all knew that as kids. What's really important is now they
know why. They weren't learning about chicken soup, they were learning
about the human body.

The funny thing about this discussion is that I'm not a stereotypical
"conservative" who wants to say that humans can't possibly affect the
environment (as in the George Carlin quote). Obviously that would be
ridiculous. Humans are systematically destroying the ecosystem with
all kinds of toxic chemicals. Why get excited about CO2?

You make a good point but I think the issue is actually becoming less
devisive among politicians. It is the ratings seeking media, liberal
and conservative alike that are beating the drums hardest and even then
it isn't always clearly a left/right issue. I think most people are
quite poorly educated on the issue and they don't know who to believe.
Most people put more faith in the 'free press' than the press
deserves, especially now that it is almost all corporately owned and
news is as much manufactured as reported.

Hydrocarbons are the most politically charged substance on the
planet. Can you really take politics out of the science of global
warming, especially when there is so much evidence that the climate
is on its own highly unpredictable roller coaster anyway?

Here is something of a misunderstanding. Again, the science isn't
saying 'it's our fault'. Obviously the planet is warming with or
without us. The question is whether humans are accelerating that
warming and 600+ scientists, after seven years of study, have stated
there is 90% or better chance that we are. What is at stake is how
reliable our predictions of the future environment will be and what
planning we need to make and when.

The existence of ulterior political motives is so obvious that it
seems ridiculous to disagree.

Are you going to believe a majority opinion, with checked and cross
checked data; or a minority fringe whose reports cannot pass the peer
review process because of the high rate of errors? I mean I suppose
it's feasible there is some mass global conspiracy to deceive the
public into believing that humans are accelerating global warming but
to what end? I'm saving my tinfoil hat for another day.

In the end, hydrocarbon fuels can't last forever. Sooner or later we
will have to change. It would better for our country (and the
environment) if we started changing now to renewable sources such as
biodiesel and spend those billions of dollars we export, here instead.
The only businesses who will suffer are those who refuse to change with
the times. Who's making buggy whips now?
--
Mac Cool
.

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