Monday, November 1, 2010

When You Vote Tomorrow....Vote Science

From one of my favs, Bad Astromomy:

Science is our best method for figuring out reality. It provides us with a method to rigorously test our ideas to find out if they are right or wrong. We can discard bad ideas, keep good ones, and that way get ever-closer to being able to understand what the Universe is actually trying to tell us.

Scientists are necessarily conservative when it comes to consensus. It takes years, decades, of testing ideas to build an agreement on what’s what. At first, many will argue against it, but eventually, as evidence piles up, the scientists will come to terms with the new idea, and use it as the default position.

When it comes to global warming, that consensus has been built. The vast majority — and I do mean vast — of climate scientists agree that the Earth is warming, and while evidence is still coming in, most of these scientists agree warming is due to human causes.

OK, so far so good, we know that scientists believe in the fact of, and the seriousness of, man-made global warming.  Let's translate that into, "Now what do we do about it?" as in, let's look to our elected representatives to have our back on this.  After all, we are talking about the fate of human life on this planet, right?

So what does it say when every single Republican candidate running for Senate this autumn is either a denier of man-made global warming or disputing facts about it we know are true?

It’s actually quite amazing. 37 seats are up for grabs in November, and of the 37 Republicans (and their Frankensteinian offspring, the Tea Party) running for these seats, not a single one supports taking any action on global warming.

Don't any of these people have children or grandchildren?  I guess since party loyalty and discipline are evidently of paramount importance, the best we probably can expect is a unanimous "We're sorry" ...well after the point of no return has been reached for the planet.

 

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