Conservatives: Should we prosecute climate scientists for fraud?

[GIGObuster]

@mlees

I lean in this direction, too.

But I would think that that there is an additional spin to this climate change debate, for me. On one side of the coin is the science & scientists, who I have an open mind on (and can become more convinced with reasoned argument), but on the other hand, there is the political side of the issue, which is where I am much more skeptical and cynical. I get the feeling that politicians would like to use GW as a way to raise revenue.

I have to say that one huge thing that was missed also by Fotheringay-Phipps is the history of the science.

The Discovery of Global Warming

In a nutshell:

The important bit to take into account is that for more than 100 years scientists knew about the warming effect of CO2 and other warming gases; however, most scientists were skeptical about how this could become a problem.

Around 70 years ago people like Callendar were overconfident that we were headed into trouble but he was practically called a crank by mainstream science. Most scientists indeed had very good arguments against the ones that began to worry like G.S. Callendar. Most scientists did think that the overlapping absorption bands of CO2 and water vapor already blocked all the radiation that those molecules were capable of blocking, and that natural sinks would capture most if not all the CO2 emitted by humans.

But in the 1950’s scientists like Plass showed that the bands of absorption of CO2 were actually not well understood in the past, others showed close to that time also that the natural sinks were not doing the job and that CO2 was increasing, and by a lot.

The point here is that, sure they were cranks in this scientific tale too, but like Wegener and his continental plates, guys like Callendar got somethings wrong but eventually others found that guys like him were mostly on the right track, and that was figured out by Plass and many other researches in several fields of research.

It was all that evidence and research that moved most of the scientists of today to accept that we are getting into dangerous territory. Even if one grants that there may be a benefit on the warming observed the problem is that we are overshooting the levels that could be considered beneficial for most of the people of the world.

Graphic: The relentless rise of carbon dioxide - NASA Science

As others observed, like science writer Peter Hadfield, thinking that this “Great Cause” has been moved along by fraud would require fraud in several fields of science and done for more than 100 years. The problem for this view is that, even among the ones were the debunking of this would benefit the most, their scientists found that the evidence and science is hard to fool, particularly after the 1950’s.