Anti-Science Alarmists

I've previously written about the absence of evidence for man-made global warming. And about alarmists' puzzling insistence that (non-existent) widespread consensus makes the science settled and not subject to further debate. I've also reported on the popular (but equally mistaken) propaganda predicting extinction of the polar bear because of warming.

These threads combine in the treatment of Mitchell Taylor, as Coyote Blog reports:

Mitchell Taylor is a world’s leading polar bear expert. He has studied a greater number of polar bear populations than anyone else. He has caught more polar bears than anyone else.

He was going to attend the 2009 meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG). The name sounds technical, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, in one of his papers, he wrote this somewhat self-evident, yet detailed, balanced, and carefully worded description of the polar bears’ situation:

The concern that polar bears will decline if the climate continues to warm is valid. However, the assertion that polar bears will become extinct unless immediate measures are taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions is irrational because it is inconsistent with the long-term persistence of polar bears through previous periods of warming and cooling; and because the IPCC climate model predictions 50 and 100 years into the future do not suggest a future with insufficient sea ice to support polar bears as a viable species.

Joanne Nova's recent report for the Science and Public Policy Institute details the reaction (footnote omitted):

Dr Andy Derocher, the outgoing chairman of the PBSG and Professor at the University of Alberta, wrote to inform Taylor that he was not welcome at the 2009 meeting of the PBSG. Keep in mind as you read his comments (below) that Taylor had arranged funding to attend the meeting in Copenhagen, and has been at every meeting of this group since 1981. With 30 years of experience in polar bear research, it goes without saying that he has something to contribute to any discussion about polar bear conservation.

This is the original email from Derocher to Taylor explaining why he was not invited:

Hi Mitch,

The world is a political place and for polar bears, more so now than ever before. I have no problem with dissenting views as long as they are supportable by logic, scientific reasoning, and the literature.

I do believe, as do many PBSG members, that for the sake of polar bear conservation, views that run counter to human induced climate change are extremely unhelpful. In this vein, your positions and statements in the Manhattan Declaration, the Frontier Institute, and the Science and Public Policy Institute are inconsistent with positions taken by the PBSG.

I too was not surprised by the members not endorsing an invitation. Nothing I heard had to do with your science on harvesting or your research on polar bears -- it was the positions you’ve taken on global warming that brought opposition.

Time will tell who is correct but the scientific literature is not on the side of those arguing against human induced climate change. I look forward to having someone else chair the PBSG.

Best regards,
Andy (Derocher)

This isn't science--it's un-falsifiable circular assumptions. It's not economics--the recommended remedies cost more than the results of rising temperatures. And it doesn't justify the Democrats' commitment to recessionary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

But such exchanges do explain the claimed consensus. As Josef Stalin once said: "I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this -- who will count the votes, and how." Soviet-style ballot stuffing being passe, enviros employ evasion and exile. For warming cultists, dissent gets deleted.