Bob McCarty Writes

EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally published on this blog March 30, 2007, the post below is republished today in light of recent revelations about fraud and conspiracy among research scientists and others whose work formed much of the basis of calls for extreme climate change regulation.

“Adam Smith wrote that ‘Science is the antidote for enthusiasm and superstition.’ Unfortunately, in the hands of enthusiasts and superstitionists — or, in our own era, ideologues — unsound science can become a powerful tool for mischief and harm.”

That’s how James K. Glassman began a 2001 speech, Climate Science Rx, A Manhattan Project of Research. After citing Smith, the famous Scottish political economist, philosopher and author of the influential book, The Wealth of Nations, written in 1776, Glassman made some profound observations of his own:

“The current enthusiasm over global warming is based on either unsound — or if you want to be more modest about it, unsettled — science. We don’t know much about climate. That’s the truth. We need to know more. The recent report of a dozen distinguished climate scientists, issued by the National Academy of Sciences, uses the words ‘uncertain’ or ‘uncertainty’ 43 times in 28 pages, and that doesn’t count such phrases as ‘we cannot rule out’ or ‘not known.’”

Though his speech was delivered in 2001, cited sources dating back to 1776 and contained several points worthy of debate, the main points of Glassman’s speech remain valid today.