On Global Warming Deniers

There are any number of global warming deniers who impugn the credibility of global warming science.

My response to these people is: “I have every reason to trust scientists and none to trust you.”

Tens of thousands of the world's best minds, working separately, have come up with what should be common sense: That if you raise carbon emissions while cutting down the rainforests that absorb them, you have problems. And that is something that should be obvious to any intelligent person.

It is ridiculous that these people claim to speak for liberty or rationality. As George Orwell said, freedom starts by being able to say that two plus two equals four. The people who deny reality have no business claiming to speak for rationality or responsibility. They want ongoing reliance on destructive technologies at the expense of progress. And their treatment of the environment is exceptionally irresponsible, destroying rich and beautiful environments that people have not created and cannot recreate.

There is every reason to trust the climate scientists. There is none to trust the global warming deniers. These people invent one fiction after another to deny reality. And that makes them conmen.

Global warming is as real as you and me. Denying it is denying reality, proper. The solution is not to do away with technology. The solution is to implement better technology that allows people to have everything they have now and more with vastly fewer destructive effects.

Ultimately, this will even be good for the oil companies. Oil will last longer and be used for higher-end goods such as plastics and pharmaceuticals, realizing greater income than if it is wastefully burned. There are any number of technologies that can provide for people's energy needs without causing the flooding of Manhattan.

And it becomes our job, as the people who care, to put into place these technologies.