But don't take my word for it. I'm not one of those top scientists. For Mother Earth's sake, listen to the children.
I have a few thoughts about this:
- I guess the scientists who would disagree about climate change being the most serious threat to ever face the earth are not top scientists. Because if they were top scientists, they would agree. Those scientists would conform their own personal beliefs with the idea that nothing - nothing! - is more serious right now than climate change. But because they refuse to conform, they can't be a top scientist. If only they would get on the bandwagon.... then they'd be top. Or at least, you know, pretty close to the top, anyway.
- Are these the children of all those top scientists?
- One child declares, "Droughts and floods and hurricanes are getting worse." What does this mean, exactly? I take it to mean that droughts, floods, and hurricanes have inflicted more destruction and damage than they have in the past, when people weren't burning fossil fuels and polluting the air and water. But do we have scientific evidence of this? Do we know conclusively that droughts, floods and hurricanes are much worse than they were 100 years ago... or 500 years ago... or 3,000 years ago?
- If my children don't agree with these children, does it mean that they're not top children?
- "Really cool animals like polar bears and walruses will lose their habitat." Pity all the uncool animals that lose their habitats. No one cares about them.
- The children urge the American president to join with leaders of other nations for a meeting in Copenhagen ("That's in Denmark."). They tell us, "The rest of the world is ready," but then they only list eight countries. Hmm. I didn't know the world only had nine nations.
- I think I'll change all my "global warming" tags to "climate change" tags. Then I'll become a top blogger.
- Thanks, Anchoress.
I'm going to hazard a guess that "top scientist" refers to someone who is good at what they do and is respected by peers in the field who have some expertise in the same field and can, therefore, offer an informed opinion about who is good at the task and who is not. And, perhaps, the scientists who disagree are not so good at their job, are not well respected by their peers, and (perhaps) allow their research to be influenced by companies who fund their research and also have a financial interest in nothing much being done to fight global warming.
ReplyDeleteBut Doug, we get no such information about those top scientists - we don't know who they are, and what don't know what makes them "top." That's a good guess that you have, but we have no way of knowing who these people are - we get no such information from those video. Only an assurance from children that all those "top scientists" think the same thing about climate change. And I can't know this for sure, but I think that at least some of those top scientists are influenced by "green" companies who fund their research as well.
ReplyDelete