When I first started expressing my skepticism of global warming, the general consensus was that the world was getting significantly warmer and human beings were the primary cause. As a result of a few email messages implicating global warming “scientists” in a plot to fudge the data, the pendulum has suddenly swung the other way. (See The Wall Street Journal story, “Global Warming With the Lid Off.”)
While it’s tempting for us skeptics to gloat about the recent developments and the shifting sentiment, I find it sad and disgusting to see emotion and self-interest, rather than logic and a genuine concern for the human condition, driving this debate. I’ve noticed this happening quite a bit lately in everything ranging from economics to healthcare to science. Issues are becoming more and more politicized, debates are becoming more and more polarized, and truth and nuance are quickly disappearing.
Man-made global warming may or may not be true. As I see it, however, global warming is not the real crisis here. The real crisis is that the most significant issues humans are facing today are getting so political that we cannot even rely on the data, let alone a rational analysis of the data, to guide our decisions.
