Introductory Post

My Views on Climate and Energy

I'm very interested in climate change and energy issues. I started following them on blogs over half a decade ago. I have learned a lot and formulated opinions on climate science, energy, the politics involved, science in general and especially scientists.

I hold a lukewarmer position on climate change. It may turn out to be a big problem, but there is nothing urgent about it. "Climate emergency" is an oxymoron.

I find energy to be one of the most fascinating and important climate related topics. Unfortunately, I find people often have a lot of preconceptions about it that are detrimental to society. I think the most important source of energy for the future is nuclear power for reasons that are too elaborate to go into here. So called renewable sources such as solar and wind are not being critically evaluated.


The politics of climate are really frightening. There are a lot of politicians and rich people, with what I believe to be dangerous misconceptions, who are convinced that they are on an urgent mission to save the world. What I really find disturbing, is zealous advocates avoiding debate and trying (sometimes overtly) to silence opposing views.

Science is something that has taken on a mystical meaning. Science is just an ever changing description of what we know about reality. People are conflating it with institutions and rules in what I suppose I could call the academic research complex. These institutions and rules are important, but they are just human constructs and they are not science.

Finally, there are the scientists and I would like to include engineers and others in one big group, which I'll call technical people. They may be good in their own specific fields, often developing big egos, while neglecting and becoming deficient in other areas of life. This is often portrayed in popular culture by movies, TV and comic strips, such as Dilbert. I suspect this may have something to do with the level of discourse on climate blogs.

Some scientists like to think of themselves as dispassionate, logical and objective like Mr. Spock on Star Trek. But I don't think that is quite right. A scientist who, say, thinks dinosaurs were warm blooded and has spent his life finding evidence for this, is not going to be easily persuaded otherwise no matter how logical an argument is made or how logical he thinks he is. He has a lot of emotion and passion invested in his theory or he wouldn't have gotten where he is.

More details about my views can be found by reading my reviews at Amazon.com. They are mostly on climate and energy related books, along with some on politics. BTW I usually (not always) find myself agreeing with the writers at reason.com.


Comments on Blogs

Since the climate issue is so emotional and contentious (and even nasty), I often have, or see others have comments deleted. I thought I would try to make a public record with commentary.