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Old 02-01-2012, 02:50 PM   #50 (permalink)
venturabananas
 
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Default Re: NASA Temperature Data: 1880-2011

Quote:
Originally Posted by harveyc View Post
I wish the author of that OpEd piece would educate us dummies and tell us what is extreme about the views of the "few" qualified folks in the original OpEd piece instead of introducing an entirely unrelated matter of a retrovirus scientist.

The author himself delves into an area where he seems to have no expertise, suggesting that we "invest" in low carbon energy to stimulate the economy. I suppose we will need some more taxes for that which would be lots of help.
I take "extreme" to be used in the statistical sense, that is to say, far from the average view. If you disagree with 97% of chestnut growers, your views would be extreme, even though they could be correct. But if I were starting a chestnut growing business, I'd probably follow the advice of the 97%.

I include myself in the category of dummies, at least when it comes to understanding the details of climate change science. Sure, I have a PhD in a science, but it's not in climatology. I don't think climatologists or scientists in general are any smarter than the average person, but we are trained to be experts in whatever discipline we specialize in. That was the point of the article, in my mind. If your car needs a new transmission, do you take it to the genius French pastry chef who is smarter than anyone you know, but has never worked on a car in his life?
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