Science

Here is the response I wrote to Frank about global warming/science. A nice summary of how science works.


Frank - here is how science works. You have a phenomenon that is not completely understood - e.g. lung cancer. One day a lung surgeon notices that many of his patients smoke 2 pack a day. (Doctors used to be heavy smokers, too.) He thinks - maybe cigarette smoking causes cancer. He's not sure - afterall, not everyone who smokes gets cancer. He publishes his finding. Other doctors and researchers perform independent analyses and publish their results in peer-reviewed journals. There is some conflicting evidence. Cigarette companies join the fray, examine the evidence and find every little discrepancy and say there is no "scientific proof" - this phenomenon is not completely understand (which is true.) A commission of scientists is put together to evaluate the different findings. They conclude that the weight of evidence clearly shows that smoking causes lung cancer - even though they don't completely understand the link between smoking and lung cancer - and not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer. That's what happened. There was no collusion, no conspiracy, no liberal agenda - just science.