Australian Politics Forum

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/15/ethics-climate-change-scientists
Scientists have a moral obligation to take action on climate change
Calling on all scientists to refrain from public advocacy and leadership is wrong. We are in a global crisis, and the scientific fraternity has an ethical obligation to act

Dan Cass
theguardian.com, Thursday 15 August 2013 14.50 AES

Al Gore’s influential film about climate science was not called A Scientifically-Modelled Truth, or The Statistically Fairly Likely Truth, even though these would have been accurate titles. It was An Inconvenient Truth, because the key factor in the climate debate is not the truthfulness of the science, but the futile political war waged against that scientific truth. That war is still being waged by sections of the media, as well as think tanks and campaigns funded by the polluters.

It was surprising, then, to read respected climate scientist Tamsin Edwards recently bemoaning that it is environmentalists who undermine her work, because we put her “under pressure to be a political advocate”.

Those of us who accept climate science empathise with scientists doing the hard work, and do not want to be putting them under pressure. It is the polluters and denialists who are putting researchers under pressure, and potentially doing far far worse.

Some of the virulent anti-environmentalists in the world are from my country, Australia. For example, Alby Schultz, a retiring member of parliament, says that the world is being dragged into a dark age by the “perverted science of global warming”, which he equates with Nazi ideology. Schultz also thinks Australians should be "rioting in the streets" against renewables.

So how should climate scientists respond to the likes of Schultz and his slurs? They could choose to debate him and all other critics – but this might make the problem worse, because it legitimates them.
As Bill Maher put it with comic exaggeration, "On this side of the debate: every scientist in the world. On the other: Mr Potato-Head".
There is no debate here; it's just scientists and non-scientists, and since the topic is science, the non-scientists don't get a vote.

The majority of climate scientists are probably right to follow their current strategy, which is keep calm and carry on. They are expanding our knowledge about the climate, doing what they are best at and which the rest of us are unable to do.

However we are in a global crisis, and I believe that the scientific fraternity has an ethical obligation to take action. We need some scientists to show social leadership, not just scientific leadership. Edwards is being too strident, calling on all scientists to refrain from public advocacy and leadership. I think that is unreasonable to expect and never likely to happen.

There is a great precedent for engaged scientists participating in a social problem. After the second world war, when the world was at risk of a new, nuclear war between west and east, physicists showed leadership.

In 1955, Albert Einstein signed a letter calling on the world to renounce nuclear weapons. The Russell-Einstein manifesto was endorsed by the smartest scientists of the generation, including several Nobel Prize winners: Frédéric Joliot-Curie (1935, chemistry), Percy Williams Bridgman (1946, physics), Linus Pauling (1954, chemistry), Cecil Frank Powell (1950, physics), Hideki Yukawa (1949, physics), H J Muller (1946, physiology or medicine).

As a result of the manifesto, the scientists formed Pugwash, an organisation of scientists devoted to a political project: preventing nuclear war. Joseph Rotblat was a founder of the organisation and when the New York Times invited him to write on the 50th anniversary of the manifesto, he said: “We took action then because we felt that the world situation was entering a dangerous phase, in which extraordinary efforts were required to prevent a catastrophe.”

Rotblat and Pugwash shared the Nobel Prize for peace, and he is a hero of mine for showing that scientists can be passionate moral leaders and still retain their integrity. The work done by scientists through Pugwash helped make the world a safer place. Their work contributed to the key international agreements on weapons of mass destruction, including the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, and the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972.

The flipside of the problem of climate science is not just avoiding dangerous global warming, it is the benefits of clean energy. Scientists and technologists are paving the way for an age of safe energy. The clean energy revolution brings together science, design, social enterprise and the aspirations of the estimated 1.4bn or 1.6bn people who could be lifted out of energy poverty by solar power.

I believe the doomy prognoses of climate science, but remain optimistic that if we can turn around the climate crisis, we will generate great opportunities for making the world a better place.

Scientists have a moral obligation to do science!

People have a moral obligation to take action!!

Too bad these scienstists are on the AGW gravy train.

"The people don't want war, but they can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country." - Hermann Göring.

And in every situation. A scared population is an easier controlled one.

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 1:22pm:

Well said.

Quote:

There is something behind the throne greater than the king himself.
Sir William Pitt

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.
Benjamin Dislaeu

The real truth of the matters is that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government since the days of Andrew Jackson.
Franklin D Roosevelt

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous than standing armies…If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency…the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered..
Thomas Jefferson

If you want to remain slaves of the bankers and pay for the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and control the nation’s credit.
Josiah Stamp

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit.
We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
Woodrow Wilson

A world banking system was being set up here.. a super state controlled by international bankers… acting together to enslave the world for their own pleasure. The FED has usurped the government.
Louis McFadden

The refusal of king George iii to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the revolution.
Benjamin Franklin

“If congress has the right under the Constitution to issue paper money, it was given them to use themselves, not to be delegated to individuals or corporations.”
- Andrew Jackson

“The Government should create, issue, and circulate all the currency and credits needed to satisfy the spending power of the Government and the buying power of consumers. By the adoption of these principles, the taxpayers will be saved immense sums of interest. Money will cease to be master and become the servant of humanity.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
- Henry Ford

"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government."
- Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference in Evians, France, 1991

"The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining super capitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control.... Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent."
- Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviets

“Some even believe we (the Rockefeller family) are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
- David Rockefeller, Memoirs, page 405

These guys have been scaring us to do their bidding for eons.

Quote:

"It is the system of nationalist individualism that has to go....We are living in the end of the sovereign states....In the great struggle to evoke a Westernized World Socialism, contemporary governments may vanish....Countless people...will hate the new world order....and will die protesting against it." - H.G. Wells, in his book, “The New World Order”, 1940

“Bankers own the earth; take it away from them but leave them with the power to create credit; and, with a flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again... If you want to be slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the bankers control money and control credit.”
- Sir Josiah Stamp, Director, Bank of England, 1940.

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order."
- David Rockefeller

"We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years... It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."
- David Rockefeller, Bilderberg Meeting, June 1991 Baden, Germany

"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependent on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class." - Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

“Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws."
- Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war.” –
Abraham Lincoln - In a letter written to William Elkin

Ajax wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 11:45am:

Too bad these scienstists are on the AGW gravy train.

Is the credibility of a conspiracy theory proportional to the number of necessary conspirators or inversely proportional?

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:40pm:

Ajax wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 11:45am:

Too bad these scienstists are on the AGW gravy train.

Is the credibility of a conspiracy theory proportional to the number of necessary conspirators or inversely proportional?

Perhaps you could ask your leaders at the next cult meeting. :-/

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

... cult ...

Trolling, Greggery? Run out of ideas, Greggery?

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:48pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

... cult ...

Trolling, Greggery? Run out of ideas, Greggery?

We can call it a religion if you like.

No problems at all.

"Perhaps you could ask your leaders at the next ~~cult~~ church ~~meeting~~ gathering."

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:53pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:48pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

... cult ...

...
Trolling, Greggery? Run out of ideas, Greggery?

We can call it a religion if you like.
...

Trolling, Greggery?

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:02pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:53pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:48pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

... cult ...

...
Trolling, Greggery? Run out of ideas, Greggery?

We can call it a religion if you like.
...

Trolling, Greggery?

Nope.

How about you?

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:04pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:02pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:53pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:48pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

... cult ...

...
Trolling, Greggery? Run out of ideas, Greggery?

We can call it a religion if you like.
...

Trolling, Greggery?

Nope.
...

You're doing such a good imitation that there's no discernible difference.

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:08pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:04pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:02pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:53pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:48pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

... cult ...

...
Trolling, Greggery? Run out of ideas, Greggery?

We can call it a religion if you like.
...

Trolling, Greggery?

Nope.
...

You're doing such a good imitation that there's no discernible difference.

I wouldn't expect you to recognise discernible differences.

Thus, I'm willing to overlook your confusion.

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:13pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:08pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:04pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:02pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:53pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:48pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 3:43pm:

... cult ...

...
Trolling, Greggery? Run out of ideas, Greggery?

We can call it a religion if you like.
...

Trolling, Greggery?

Nope.
...

You're doing such a good imitation that there's no discernible difference.

I wouldn't expect you to recognise discernible differences.

Thus, I'm willing to overlook your confusion.

You merely deny anything that's inconsistent with your beliefs. I see two possibilities.

If you're genuine, then you're insane. If you're not genuine, then your trolling.

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:33pm:

I see two possibilities.

Well, it's one more than you usually see.

We're getting somewhere.

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 6:36pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:33pm:

I see two possibilities.

Well, it's one more than you usually see.

We're getting somewhere.

You do realise that your post is consistent with trolling.

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 7:38pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 6:36pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:33pm:

I see two possibilities.

Well, it's one more than you usually see.

We're getting somewhere.

You do realise that your post is consistent with trolling.

Marvelous retort.

"I'm losing the argument and can't think of anything worthwhile to say, so I'll call him a troll".

You've done well.

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 7:46pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 7:38pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 6:36pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:33pm:

I see two possibilities.

Well, it's one more than you usually see.

We're getting somewhere.

You do realise that your post is consistent with trolling.

Marvelous retort.

"I'm losing the argument and can't think of anything worthwhile to say, so I'll call him a troll".

You've done well.

And a smartarse comment is inconsistent with trolling - how?

Ajax wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 11:45am:

Too bad these scienstists are on the AGW gravy train.

Um, lol, globalists aren't on the insider trading train much?? :-* :-*

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 7:38pm:

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 6:36pm:

# wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 4:33pm:

I see two possibilities.

Well, it's one more than you usually see.

We're getting somewhere.

You do realise that your post is consistent with trolling.

Greggery likes to confuse the enemy : keeps the stockmarket insider trading racket running like clockwork! vote 1 Murdoch today and smile a coke faced smile like greggery- you can't sleep but atleast you can run your gob on your lonesome pretending you're drinking fine wine and not smoking gutter drugs!!

greggerypeccary wrote on Aug 20^th, 2013 at 1:16pm:

Ooooh, pulling out the big guns :-* :-* :-* :-*

What's next, front page headlines with emotional pictures of blacky??? ::) ;D ;D

Australian Politics Forum
http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl Member Run Boards >> Environment >> Scientists have a moral obligation to take action http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1376604916 Message started by # on Aug 16^th, 2013 at 8:15am