Confusing Weather and Climate for Fun and Profit

by Cameron Scott · 2010-02-10 14:33:00 UTC
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Nikki wrote earlier today that Americans' declining scientific literacy and increasing skepticism about scientific objectivity "make it far too easy to misconstrue facts and use them to serve preexisting ideas."

Exhibit A: Conservatives — including Jim DeMint and James Inhofe — are using the recent snow in Washington to mock politicians who support cap-and-trade legislation. Note that I did not say that they were using it to debate those politicians: Low-brow know-nothingism leads to finger-pointing and name-calling; it does not lead to intelligent debate.

The absurdity is particularly rich because climate scientists have long held that while winters on average will get shorter and milder, some winter storms will in fact be more severe.

You have to hand it to conservatives, though: By gutting our educational system and depicting experts as pointy-headed losers, they've readied the public to accept this I-don't-think-therefore-I-know arguments.

Photo credit: NASA

Cameron Scott writes The Thin Green Line blog at SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle).
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