Tin Foil Hat Time: Sen. Santorum on Climate Change
So, according to Republican ex-Senator and Presidential Wannabe Rick Santorum,
“I refer to global warming as not climate science, but political science,” surging Republican presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Rick Santorum said Monday in Steubenville, OH. “A lot of these environmental sciences are just that – political sciences. They have nothing to do with … real understanding of how we have to value both the environment and its impact on man and the world.”
More recently, Tin Foil Rick appeared on the PBS News Hour to repeat his belief that global wamring is “political science,” not “climate science.”
Before we all break out our tin foil hats and join Santorum (BS, Political Science, MBA, JD) in his conspiracy delusions, let’s have a brief look at what would be required for the ex-Senator to be right.
- A vast network on scientists, who can’t agree on anything else, all agree to engage in a conspiracy to delude the world in thousands of studies, all supporting the existence of global warming. Not one, not a single scientist ‘fesses up.
- The vast conspiracy, the scoop of the century for any mainstream media outlet, is not reported. Not even the supermarket journalists, who previously documented Satan;s escape from Hell through a North Slope oil well. This may mean they are a part of the vast conspiracy, too.
- Most of the United Nations, excepting only a few political hacks appointed by former Pres. Bush, fall for the vast conspiracy, or may be part of the conspiracy as well.
- High school physics experiments in which teenage students demonstrate increased CO2 concentrations elevate temperatures are somehow wrong, suggesting the vast conspiracy has the power to reach into high school classrooms and booger the data.
- The oceans are becoming increasingly acidic, not as a result of absorbing CO2 but from some other, as yet undocumented source. Perhaps the acidic bile spewing from the mouths of Republican presidential candidates?
- The arctic ice cap has not disappeared, suggesting the the vast conspiracy has the power to booger satellite images as well as high school lab experiments.
- Rush Limbaugh was correct about something.
WC wants to introduce the ex-Senator to a logical principle, Occam’s Razor. It says that “a principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false.” The professedly Catholic ex-Senator should like this principle; it was invented by a Catholic, a Franciscan friar, William of Okham.
For climate change to be true, known, demonstrable physical laws – the so-called “greenhouse gases – have to be true. For Santorum to be right, for climate change to be wrong, not only do the physical laws have to somehow be wrong, but also there has to be a truly gigantic conspiracy to hide the fact that those physical laws are false. Occam’s Razor makes quick work of Santorum. The late Carl Sagan put it another way: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.” Ex-Senator Santorum, where’s your extraordinary proof?
It’s easy for politicians to pander. It’s patently obvious politicians can be ignorant; look no further than the last Republican vice presidential candidate.
But this is the future of the freaking planet you are talking about. Whether you are ignorant, pandering or flat out delusional, it’s way beyond stupid to be taking these kinds of chances with your children and your grandchildren’s future.
The ex-Sentator is far too dangerous to the planet to allow his idiot views to go unchallenged. WC declares intellectual warfare on Rick Santorum. Sure, it’s an unfair battle, but WC will do his best to keep up with some of the filthy stream of misogynism, sexism, homophobia, Christianisim, anti-intellectualism, debased pandering and general bigotry that spews from this alleged human being.
But what I find far, far more disturbing than these politicians who KNOW they are spouting falsehoods is how many regular people actually believe what people like Santorum are saying – which proves just how far our educational system has fallen, particularly in regards to science.
Kate McLaughlin
February 24, 2012 at 7:53 am
I would to see this post up on HuffPo. This truly needs a wide audience. It is succinct, well conceived and well written (not that WC’s other posts are not, but this will communicate the problem with Santorum’s view very well).
As to the comment that our school system has failed, I would counter with that it may be that the far-right religious view has triumphed amongst those who are given to following dogma. Public schools do not hold the threat of eternal damnation over those too weak to think on their own. I mean, what is a failing grade or the shame of not doing homework compared to that?
In addition, parental values often weigh-in more heavily that educational curricula. School boards infiltrated and dominated by anti-scientific, anti-intellectual members at the local or state levels also must be factored in before judging the impact of public schools. Many of us have been intellectually and politically lazy while this slow transformation has taken place. Ask teachers who value teaching science (or any other subject) how difficult it is to fight against apathy or active resistance. Combined, the two forces are almost insurmountable. I am not apologizing for public schools, but I am a realist and was trained as an undergrad to teach in them. There are real and persistent limits to how much influence teachers can have if the administration, school boards (at either the local or state level) and parental pressures (or lack of involvement) can have on students. It truly does take team effort. Unfortunately, the team is at least temporarily stacking against honest intellectual curiosity and critical thinking.
What bothers me about Santorum is not only his resistance to solid evidence to the contrary of his position, is his proclaimed desire to do away with national and state educational standards and place all the power at the local level. If that ever occurs, our society will be permanently crippled in the world marketplace. We will indeed become a third-world mentality, scattering our potential to various small-minded special interests such as the fundamentalists whose faith is placed in mythic dogma rather than scientific fact gathering and analysis.
Santorum also believes that instead of being conserving and protecting the natural world, we should exploit and use it for our short-term needs however we define them. He has said, according to his religious beliefs, that the earth is there to be used, not to be protected. People such as Rick Santorum both scare and anger me to the core.
Again, thank you WC for a significant post. I hope you will try to seek its posting to HuffPo because it is not a matter of personal acclaim, it is a matter of waking people up.
kssunflower
February 24, 2012 at 9:40 am
Hi Sunflower, I’m not blaming teachers at all – I’ve seen first hand the challenges they have. I’ve been volunteering science and natural history lessons at our small rural school for over a decade now. I’m with you blaming the whole system; the school boards who are being taken over by those who don’t believe in teaching science and promote text books that rewrite history and insert ideology into the science texts, by the hiring of teachers who have somehow gotten their teaching certificates, or even in their undergrad degrees with no basic scientific understanding, and by the politicians who allow this to go on to the detriment of our whole country and society. The world is leaving the U.S. behind in the dust as far as science and engineering are going and our children are going to suffer from it.
Kate McLaughlin
February 24, 2012 at 11:19 am