I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.
Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.
There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.
—Michael Crichton, Aliens cause Global Warming [January 17, 2003 speech at the California Institute of Technology]
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I agree :)
You ought to read this article – http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/11/stories/2009011160490900.htm
A vivid demonstration of how meaningless and vague statements push an agenda under the guise of science. Utterly disgusting. And this is the stuff published in mainline dailies.
You know what this reminds me of? The opposition – FUD spread – against Rearden Metal. Swami has been writing about this for quite some time now in his columns-
* In “The threat of green fascism”-
* In “Green killers and pseudo-science”-
An argument can be made about GM-tech companies and their enforcement of patent rights, but what the “environmentalists” are doing is plain nonsense.
“…the ultra-health-conscious USA”
You have got to be joking! People in the USA are unhealthy, over-weight, junk food addicts. With the rate of cancer approaching 25%.
The gross inaccuracy of this statement is enough to make me sick… almost as sick as the average American!
I think he is talking about the paternalistic US State which has the habit of regulating everything in sight.
i want to know what the difference between consensus science and frontier science? to which does environmental science belong?
There is just one kind of science; science done right is plain science. “Consensus science,” on the other hand, is a pejorative that refers to the politicization of the scientific process.