Behind-the-scenes I’ve heard the line this “isn’t about the science”. I said that myself back in 2007: it’s not about the science, it’s about power and money. But it’s a dangerous meme. In the long run, it IS about the science.
While people think a carbon tax is bad, but believe that “carbon is pollution”, we have won a battle but lost the war.
Many new folk are appearing on the anti-carbon tax team, and here’s the weird thing for we seasoned skeptics, some of these oppose the tax, yet “believe” the science (?!) “It’s too hard” they say. They seem to think if we just beat the tax, we can ignore the reason the tax is supposedly there in the first place.
The science is the whole official reason for the tax, and if we don’t force the crowds to notice the corruption, the cheating, and the way science is exploited, then we are asking to be bludgeoned with it again. We are letting the most outrageous scam-meisters leave the room with their reputations intact and asking to be victims of the next invented crisis.
Some anti-carbon-taxers say, “Don’t confuse the punters”, just stick to the economics. And don’t misunderstand me, that’s the top-ranking point, and I’m the one who posted the definitive IPCC most generous temperature calculation, and said this is a knockout blow. But the war on our civilization is so much bigger than just one battle over one piece of legislation.
Science might seem hard to explain, but you don’t need a PhD to understand cheating. People know that publicly funded scientists ought not hide publicly funded information, and dodge FOI’s. They know that thermometers don’t measure global warming when they’re five feet above concrete, or next to warming air conditioner exhausts. They know that if carbon rises after temperatures, Mr Al Gore was not giving them the full story.
They need to know they are being deceived
While people think a carbon tax is bad, but believe that “carbon is pollution”, we have won a battle but lost the war. It’s not much of an achievement to stop this tax, but leave intact the infrastructure, the departments, the associations, and the dismal standards in our schools, newspapers, and ABC. As long as enviro-activists-masquerading-as-journo’s are the only ones explaining “science”, the West will be weakened and real environmental problems will go ignored. Until we get logic and reason into our universities and public discussion, the bullying, name-calling, distracting, and intimidation will still win debates before they even begin.
And besides, it allows the taxers to argue “we’re doing it to save the planet”, which is a powerful argument unless you are aware that their “science” is corrupted. The hip-pocket argument ignores the fact that many good citizens want to do the right thing — even if it costs them.
Highlighting the costs will catch people’s attention, but the outrageous lies and deception of the science will make them angry. If the public are furious, they’ll be motivated to act to stop the next scam, the next scare, to clean up the corruption of the peer review process, and watch out for the next scam from the political and banking elites. We need people to understand that only fakers say “the science is settled” on a complex topic.
Nothing makes people more angry than knowing they’ve been deceived.
The scientific method, free speech, democracy and rule of law are pillars of Western Civilization. When the scientific method is abused by people who suppress free speech with bullying, democracy can’t work, the free press becomes a tool of propaganda, and cheats remain above the law.