# 'If science gives you a result you don't like, pass a law making the result illegal' **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 2, 2012, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229 "2012-08-02T22:56:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/21 "2012-08-03T01:44:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > It’s reasonable for the legislature to ignore the science if they want to abdicate any pretense of caring about the future welfare of the state. If sea level has risen 10 inches by 2040 and they haven’t done any planning for it, they are already fucked. To continue the smoking analogy, neuroman’s arguing that it’s okay to keep smoking until you develop cancer. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/22 "2012-08-03T02:13:58Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > To continue the smoking analogy, neuroman’s arguing that it’s okay to keep smoking until you develop cancer. Nah the cancer diagnosis is politically motivated. Keep smoking. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/23 "2012-08-03T02:14:23Z")
Jesse Helms left office in 2003, and from 2003 until 2010 we had a pretty good run, with no politician embarrassing us to horribly badly. The 2010 Republican takeover of the legislature has changed all that. Thanks, assholes! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/24 "2012-08-03T02:19:57Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Hey, it worked for evolution.I’m amazed that you forgot to say that. Isn’t self-righteousness a Canadian genetic trait? Yes, but it expresses most commonly given an American stimulus, the likes of which are conveniently abundant in recent years. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/25 "2012-08-03T02:20:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This is North Carolina we’re talking about. They’re still questioning the science of smoking being bad for you. Believe me, if there were any scientific proof that oranges are bad for you, Florida and California would be steering the denial-bandwagon. ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/26 "2012-08-03T02:59:44Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15162134&highlight=Virginia#post15162134](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15162134&highlight=Virginia#post15162134) Looks like around June 12. The good folks in the Virginia Legislature outlawed the use of the terms “climate change” and “sea level rise” since they were "leftwing. [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/10/496982/virginia-lawmaker-says-sea-level-rise-is-a-left-wing-term-excises-it-from-state-report-on-coastal-flooding/?mobile=nc](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/10/496982/virginia-lawmaker-says-sea-level-rise-is-a-left-wing-term-excises-it-from-state-report-on-coastal-flooding/?mobile=nc) As I said in the other thread, King Canute was only kidding about stopping the rising tide. Honest. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/27 "2012-08-03T03:23:02Z")
And meanwhile in congress, Republican senators are offended by the scientists: [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/01/624821/sessions-i-am-offended-by-views-of-climate-scientists/](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/01/624821/sessions-i-am-offended-by-views-of-climate-scientists/) > [@](#): > > Nonetheless, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) was more than surprised when informed by Senator Barbara Boxer that roughly 98 percent of climate scientists, contra Christy, accepted that anthropogenic warming was real and serious — he was outraged: > > > [@](#): > > > > ``` > > Sessions: Madam Chairman, I am offended by that, I’m offended by that — I didn’t say anything about the scientists. I said the data shows [sic] it is not warming to the degree that a lot of people predicted, not close to that much… > > > > Boxer: The conclusion that you’re coming to is shared by 1-2 percent of the scientists. You shouldn’t be offended by that. That’s the fact. > > > > Sessions: I don’t believe that’s correct. > > > > ``` > > Watch it: > > Senator Sessions may want to look over this study, which surveyed the publications of 1,372 climate scientists and vindicated Senator Boxer’s view of their conclusions. For that matter, so should Senator James Inhofe, the ranking Republican on the committee who had previously dismissed the study’s findings as irrelevant to the debate on climate change. Though Sessions and Inhofe were the most outspoken Republicans at the hearing, their views are mostly shared by their colleagues on the Environment and Public Works committee. And now you know why we are getting virtually no action from the federal government on this issue. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/28 "2012-08-03T04:07:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > To continue the smoking analogy, neuroman’s arguing that it’s okay to keep smoking until you develop cancer. > [@gazpacho](#): > > Nah the cancer diagnosis is politically motivated. Keep smoking. Well, they’re pretty sure smoking cigarettes can give you cancer, but they’re not sure which one it will be. Chances are good the cancerous one isn’t in your pack. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/29 "2012-08-03T04:13:30Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > **wedgehed** : wind and currents can cause uneven rises and falls of local sea-levels. It violates the old plumbers’ law that “water always seeks its own level,” but on a continental scale, the law doesn’t apply. > > Fascinating to note that sea level at one end of the Panama Canal is quite a bit lower than at the other. If the canal were simply a ditch, there would be a very strong current flowing through it! And [some details](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21969-sealevel-rise-accelerates-faster-on-us-east-coast.html) … > [@](#): > > But sea levels do not rise evenly around the world. In 2009 Jianjun Yin, now at the University of Arizona in Tucson, used a climate model to predict that the US east coast would see more than its fair share of rising sea levels (Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo462). > > Sallenger’s data confirms that this is already happening. “This is consistent with our climate model projections,” Yin says. > > Conveyor stalling? > > The sea level rise hotspot could be the result of a major current, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), slowing down. The AMOC carries warm tropical waters into the North Atlantic, keeping western Europe warmer than other northerly regions. … > > … A slowing AMOC would cause sea levels to shoot up on the east coast of North America, so Sallenger’s hotspot suggests that the current really is losing power – especially as other factors, such as land subsidence in North America, cannot account for the accelerated sea level rise. > > Bryden says that a slowdown in the AMOC should have affected sea levels as far south as Florida. “I’m not sure they’ve explained why it happens north of Cape Hatteras but not south,” he says. > > “It could be AMOC, but it may not be,” says Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Natural variability in currents and winds could also be responsible. … ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/30 "2012-08-03T05:44:37Z")
Shit, people pay a ton of money to get a house close to the water, now the water is getting closer to the house, and they get all upset about it. ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/31 "2012-08-03T06:40:54Z")
Is it too late to lose the Civil War? ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/32 "2012-08-03T14:07:00Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Is it too late to lose the Civil War? I’d go for that. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/33 "2012-08-03T14:19:01Z")
It takes only the most cursory glance at the story to see this has nothing to do with science or scientific ignorance. It’s purely about graft and thievery. The legislators were, obviously, paid handsomely bythe real estate developers to ensure nothing would stop them from building pricey beachfront developments. The legislature probably knows full well the risks, but they’ll have lots of money and Raleigh won’t be underwater, so why should they care? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/34 "2012-08-03T16:06:44Z")
> [@fumster](#): > > Is it too late to lose the Civil War? Unfortunately, we can’t, you know, divide the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/35 "2012-08-03T16:35:20Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Isn’t self-righteousness a Canadian genetic trait? > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Yes, but it expresses most commonly given an American stimulus, the likes of which are conveniently abundant in recent years. If Canadians want to do something constructive on climate change, they can start by keeping their giant SUVs and gas-guzzling motor homes out of the U.S. At some times during the year it seems like every third vehicle on the Interstate is a humongous RV with Ontario plates. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/36 "2012-08-03T16:36:10Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > It takes only the most cursory glance at the story to see this has nothing to do with science or scientific ignorance. It’s purely about graft and thievery. The legislators were, obviously, paid handsomely bythe real estate developers to ensure nothing would stop them from building pricey beachfront developments. I agree with you so far… > [@](#): > > The legislature probably knows full well the risks, but they’ll have lots of money and Raleigh won’t be underwater, so why should they care? But I think you go wrong here - you’re underestimating the intransigence and resistance of the American right wing (especially as it’s found in the southeast) to scientific research. I wish you were right, but I don’t think you are - people really are that stubborn and anti-intellectual. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/37 "2012-08-03T16:46:36Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If Canadians want to do something constructive on climate change, they can start by keeping their giant SUVs and gas-guzzling motor homes out of the U.S. I did my part - when I recently flew to and from Jamaica, I deliberately avoided flights that landed in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/38 "2012-08-03T17:04:56Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > The good folks in the Virginia Legislature outlawed the use of the terms “climate change” and “sea level rise” since they were "leftwing. > > [http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/10/496982/virginia-lawmaker-says-sea-level-rise-is-a-left-wing-term-excises-it-from-state-report-on-coastal-flooding/?mobile=nc](http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/06/10/496982/virginia-lawmaker-says-sea-level-rise-is-a-left-wing-term-excises-it-from-state-report-on-coastal-flooding/?mobile=nc) Let’s not go overboard. According to the article you linked the politician removed those terms from a report for being left-wing. It’s still silly but it’s a far far cry from “outlawing” the terms. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/39 "2012-08-03T17:28:39Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > If Canadians want to do something constructive on climate change, they can start by keeping their giant SUVs and gas-guzzling motor homes out of the U.S. > > At some times during the year it seems like every third vehicle on the Interstate is a humongous RV with Ontario plates. I sometimes suspect the Canadians of **wanting** global warming. So that the [Northwest Passage](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Passage) will become navigable. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gamerunknown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@gamerunknown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gamerunknown)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229/40 "2012-08-03T17:31:03Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Well, they’re pretty sure smoking cigarettes can give you cancer, but they’re not sure which one it will be. Cancer, if it even exists to any degree (and there is evidence that big pharma just invented it in order to secure government contracts), is caused by purely natural phenomena. By the way, the only permissible evidence to support any view on this matter is found [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCASLzsOG70). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-science-gives-you-a-result-you-dont-like-pass-a-law-making-the-result-illegal/630229.md?page=3)