A Consensus About Consensus is an article in TCS Daily about the alleged consensus on global warming. The author is George H. Taylor, the State Climatologist for Oregon and past President of the American Association of State Climatologists. Taylor shows how literature studies do not bear out an overwhelming consensus. He writes:
But even if there actually were a consensus on this issue, it may very well be wrong. I often think about the lives of three scientists who found themselves by themselves, on the "wrong side of consensus." There have been many in the history of science, but I singled out Alfred Wegener (Continental Drift), Gilbert Walker (El Niño), and J. Harlan Bretz (Missoula Floods). None is well-known now among members of the public, and all of them were ridiculed, rejected, and marginalized by the "consensus" scientists — and each of the three was later proven to be correct, and the consensus wrong. As a well-known writer once said, "if it's consensus, it isn't science — and if it's science, it isn't consensus."
…..
When I hear the rather strident words of people like Tolan and Harte ["consensus" claimers] I am reminded of Wegener, Walker, and Bretz and what they went through. Many of my fellow climate scientists have been criticized for many years for their "non-consensus" views. They persist in seeking truth, regardless of government policies or popular opinion. No matter how many people agree.
Leave a Reply