Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Institutionalizing global warming

Global warming has become a cause.  Dr. Richard S. Lindzen, the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at the MIT, explains (PDF) that the genuine climate science has sometimes been obscured by "scientific" institutions set up specifically to advocate global warming. He gives two examples:
The actual situation has been obscured by a variety of means including the creation of nominal research centers like Tyndall (in the UK) and Potsdam (in Germany) which involve and are associated with NGOA's like Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund. An explicit aim of Tyndall, for example is to "exert a seminal influence on the design and achievability of the long-term strategic objectives of UK and international climate policy".

This is hardly basic research designed to resolve climate uncertainty. Rather it is pure advocacy involving a commitment to a particular answer -- however unlikely that answer may be. This is associated with the increasing tendency for environmental advocacy groups to merge into academic departments and institutions -- a matter that has received little scrutiny thus far -- even though Tyndall is the largest contributor of participants in the IPCC.



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