Year 2, Month 9, Day 2: Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

The August 29 Houston Chronicle reprints Paul Krugman’s shrill analysis of Republican epistemic closure:

Jon Huntsman Jr., a former Utah governor and ambassador to China, isn’t a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. And that’s too bad, because Hunstman has been willing to say the unsayable about the GOP – namely, that it is becoming the “anti-science party.” This is an enormously important development. And it should terrify us.

To see what Huntsman means, consider recent statements by the two men who actually are serious contenders for the GOP nomination: Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.

Perry, the governor of Texas, recently made headlines by dismissing evolution as “just a theory,” one that has “got some gaps in it” – an observation that will come as news to the vast majority of biologists. But what really got peoples’ attention was what he said about climate change: “I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. And I think we are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.”

Unbelievable (facepalm). Sent August 29:

Rick Perry evokes a terrifying form of nostalgia for those of us who remember another science-hostile Texan politician who occupied the White House not too long ago. His assertion that climate scientists “manipulate data” to keep “dollars rolling into their projects” may be a grotesque misinterpretation of how science works and how scientific consensus is established, but it is a perfect example of what psychologists call “projection.” Since manipulating data is how conservative politicians maintain a steady flow of cash for their own interests, he assumes that scientists are equally venal and mendacious. While there are unscrupulous climate scientists, they turn out to be the ones on the fossil fuel industry’s payroll.

In attributing his own motives to members of the scientific community, the Governor insults countless dedicated researchers who are still trying to warn an increasingly oblivious citizenry of grave and imminent dangers. Shame, shame, shame.

Warren Senders