Michael Griffin apologizes for crossing scientific junta

Features: Current EventsCritical Path Innovation: Popular Perception of Science, EcologyPeople: Michael GriffinFree Tagging: global warming

Last week NASA chief Michael Griffin made some statements about global warming during an interview on NPR. He said among other things, that it would be "arrogant" to assume the world's climate should not change in the future.
and
"I have no doubt that global — that a trend of global warming exists,"
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"I guess I would ask which human beings, where and when, are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now, is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take"

These seem like pretty reasonable - if currently unorthodox - statements to me. He was harshly criticized for these statements. Evidently he rubbed against the grain of many people's deeply held dogmatic belief that global warming is 100% man made and can be 100% fixed through human effort. In response to Michael Griffin's statements some Scientists are seeking to shut down public discourse with name calling. Scientists such as Jerry Mahlman, of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who called Griffin "totally clueless" or "a deep anti-global warming ideologue."

At any rate Griffin publicly apologized for voicing personal opinion during an interview.

I try to stay out of politics, after all if I wanted to be in politics I could run a political blog. But I'm in science. While science is about fact and not opinion, there is the gray line of theory separating the two. In my opinion, some members of the scientific community are treating a theory of the origins of global warming as absolute fact. Furthermore, they are dealing with people who disagree with accepted dogma by denying questions and shutting down public discourse. Absolutism and Dogmaticism are not the hallmarks of a healthy scientific community.


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