[ExI] Discontent with the path physics is taking

[David Lubkin]

  Kelly wrote:

>One example is that at least some Chinese scientists believe that the
>impact of CO2 on global warming has been exaggerated by western
>scientists.
>
>One article stated: "Several Chinese scientists who have gone over the
>IPCC report believe that the IPCC may have overstated the link between
>global temperature and CO2 in the atmosphere."
>
>I don't want to start another flame war on global warming, nor will I
>comment on the validity or lack there of of these particular Chinese
>scientists, I'm just pointing out that the different mind set impacts
>science in a culturally specific way.

Another explanation for what's reported is that minimizing AGP is in the
perceived interests of the Chinese ruling class, since their industrialization
strategies might be harmed if they conceded its validity. In another era,
fear of offending TPTB definitely did affect the public stances of scientists
in communist countries, e.g., in the USSR.

In the USSR and the PRC, certain fields of research were declared
"bourgeois pseudoscience," and banned e.g., [from Wikipedia]

<< Scientific dissent from Lysenko's theories of environmentally acquired
inheritance was formally outlawed in 1948, and for the next several years
opponents were purged from held positions, and many imprisoned. >>

I'm not clear how strongly scientific research is skewed in the PRC
nowadays, but the possibility exists that these scientists have made their
anti-AGP statements out of self-preservation, not from belief in them.

(This posting should not be taken to address either global warming per
se or whether skews are also seen in capitalist societies. I'm just
discussing your conclusion that the Chinese scientists believed what
they said.)


-- David.