Every single climate scientist is wrong. Every single cold fusion scientist is wrong. These statements are based upon the concept that new knowledge will become available that modifies their understanding in the future. Many of them are right as far as we know at the moment, but it would be extremely unusual if the understanding of physics is not changed in a major way in the future. This is the very nature of discovery.
If you made the same statement 100 years ago, it would have been as true then as it is now Jed. They were all wrong then and they are all wrong now. Everyone thought these experts knew everything at the time just as you think now. Actually it is a good thing that scientific knowledge is advancing at the current rate, otherwise we would be stuck in the present. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Tue, Dec 4, 2012 6:16 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:How bad is this news? Jed Rothwell Jouni Valkonen <jounivalko...@gmail.com> wrote: It should be obvious that there is politics involved in climate science. There is just too much money and urgency involved. This means also corruption, because science is not clear and it is very difficult and everyone wants to see what the wish most. Absolutely true! It is a political minefield. No doubt people on both sides of the dispute sometimes distort and play politics. I did not mean to suggest the researchers are all pure-heart scientists, and opponents all ignorant people or oil company shills. I expect there are smart & honest people on both sides. I can only judge by looking at externalities, particularly the fact that the majority of working scientists within the field agree. Since I know so little about it, I must depend upon their professional expertise. This is weak argument compared to a direct technical argument, but I am not capable of making such a argument. But let us be realistic. We depend upon experts for 99.99% of our knowledge of the world. We assume they are right about nearly everything. We bet our lives on experts every time we fly in an airplane or undergo surgery. Or take a ferry boat in the Inland Sea. We can do this with confidence because most of the time they are right. Regarding that ferry boat, I meant to say it is not surprising that once in a while one captain makes a mistake. On the other hand, if next Tuesday every single ferry boat captain in the Inland Sea runs aground, that would be very surprising. The likelihood of that is effectively zero. The likelihood that ever single climate scientist is wrong, and every single cold fusion researcher is wrong, is also so close to zero I wouldn't worry about it. Here is an article about the ferry mishap, which involved a bunch of high school students. They were freaked out, according to my friends in Oshima (or Suo-oshima as it is listed here): http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/News/Tn201211150043.html - Jed
