LATimes: Oh, great move. US Chamber of Commerce decides to take global warming to court.
One might wonder about the intellectual capacities of whoever is in charge at the US Chamber of Commerce after reading in the LA Times a Jim Tankersley tale of legal strategies against science (well, the plaintiffs would say they’re FOR sound science, of the right sort). It would be, say some at the business lobby, a “Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century.” That’s an odd metric of merit, one must say – to proclaim as an aim an event similar to the most infamous effort in US history to steer scientific discussion by wielding gavel and jury. The Scopes trial, of course, decided in favor of the anti-Darwinists and against the school teacher, but only made the former look foolish in the long run. Foolish to some, at least. To others, the trial is merely unfinished business – and something to try again and again.
Oh, the news. The Chamber is demanding that the EPA hold an evidentiary hearing to judge the merit of evidence that greenhouse gases emitted mainly by human activity are dangerously warming the planet. The EPA says don’t be silly, academies of science all over the world have already done that, etc. Tankersly handles it straight, with a listing of organizations that see the issue as a non-issue. Plus the position of the chamber that some evidence implies that Americans will be better off should temperatures go up. Hmm. Hard to say if it is an argument against the science (reality) of global warming to say ok maybe it’s real, but if so it will be good for us.
-CP
