Science has failed in obligations

Once upon a time the earth was flat. Or at least this was the scientific consensus at the time.

Einstein’s theory of relativity is grounded in part on the fact that the speed of light is constant (energy=mass times the speed of light squared). Or at least this was the scientific consensus at the time.

Scientists are now questioning that the speed of light is constant and some believe that fairly soon quantum theory and the theory of relativity could be fighting it out to determine which theory will capture the crown of scientific consensus.

The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970. Here are just two of the disasters that were predicted by what was then the scientific consensus:

1. Paul Ehrlich, professor of population studies, Department of Biology of Stanford University claimed in the Earth Day issue of “The Progressive,” that between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the “Great Die-Off.”

2. Ecology Professor Kenneth Watt warned about a pending Ice Age: “If present trends continue, the world will be about 4 degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but 11 degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”

Even non-scientists are beginning to believe these two claims are exaggerated, if not false.

Climate theory predictions are based on more than 100 different climate models that take in massive amounts of raw weather data from the past and provide the researcher with a prediction of what the climate will be in the future. The only problem with these climate models is that each one requires a minor tweak of the data to make it come out correctly.

The scientific consensus on this matter appears to be that with the proper tweaks, the models are correct.

Last week, there was the scheduled March for Science in many cities across the U.S. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why the scientists are marching. A major theme seems to be that they are unhappy with what they call politicizing science.

One can only hope that by this they mean to stop the abysmal record science has displayed of late as with the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. The scientific community en masse failed in its obligation to point out to politicians that lead in drinking water can cause devastating effects on children.

Perhaps had they not been so keen on establishing Environmental Protection Agency regulations that proclaimed farm ponds, tanks, playa lakes and ditches as navigable waters they could have spent some time working on the Flint water problem.

Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at: [email protected]