My arch nemesis, whom I’ve taken to calling Q, makes a claim which is not entirely surprising. In response to this previous posting, he asserts:

“Is there any debate amoung [sic] independent scientists that have investigated climate changes? Yes of course but about details and not about global warming or it's [sic] rate. I mentioned independent because taken [sic] the word of a scientist who works for the oil industry about global warming is as valid as taken [sic] the word of a doctor working for the tobacco industry about what causes longcancer [sic] or of a 'discovery center' scientist about evolution.” (emphasis mine)

One thing I have really enjoyed about Q is his demonstration of the sort of reasoning commonly employed by left-liberals. This is a typical left-liberal gem: refute or dismiss your opponent’s position by asserting something objectionable about your opponent, rather than pointing out any errors in fact or logic.

Q acknowledges debate, among “independent” scientists, over “details”, and does so in a way that suggests that these details are either irrelevant, insignificant, or both. (The 1957 movie, “Twelve Angry Men” is a great illustration of the relative importance of seemingly “unimportant” details. But I digress.) In the end these “independent” scientists, despite disagreement over details, don’t disagree on the “important” things.

There are other scientists, on Q’s view, who are not “independent” and who therefore are not to be trusted. These “dependent” scientists are those who work for the oil industry. Trusting them – taking their word for anything related to global warming – is not valid. Here we have a notion he calls “independence” and which he uses to judge the “validity” of taking the word of some scientist. It is not valid to take the word of a scientist who works for the oil industry. It seems, therefore, that “independent” means “not working for the oil industry.”

With the understanding that the precise debate over global warming that I have in mind is whether it is anthropogenic, the argument expressed by Q goes, I think, something like this:

Assuming: (a) that any scientist who works for an oil company (or is otherwise connected to the oil industry) is not “independent”; and (b) that, by “properly ignorable” we mean to express a thought similar to Q’s assertion of the invalidity of taking the word of non-independent scientists;

Then:

1. All Non-independent scientists are properly ignorable in debates having public policy implications.
2. Scientist Joe, who claims that global warming is not anthropogenic, is a Non-independent scientist.
3. Therefore, Scientist Joe is properly ignorable in a debate with public policy implications.

We might add that (1) is true especially in circumstances in which Joe’s assertions are contrary to a consensus of so-called independent scientists. No persuasive definition there by any stretch of the imagination!

In fact, this rather poor argument is assailable by two avenues: property rights; and this silly notion of “independence.”

First, even an oil company, in a debate about whether use of its product is destroying the planet, has the right, as the defendant if you will, to call his own expert witnesses. In other words, in a free society, even an oil company has the right to be heard in arguments about public policy. Not only that, but let’s remember who these oil companies are. These companies are the people who own them; so even if we wanted to say that the oil companies don’t have a right to be heard, the people who own them, being constituents – citizens of the U. S. – have a right to be heard.

Someone I know is invested in Chevron. She is not a wealthy woman; but she is a stockholder. Her oil company has a duty to her to protect her financial stake. If there are “independent” scientists out there asserting that her oil company’s product is destroying the planet, she has a right, through her oil company, to have the witnesses against her oil company confronted.

My wife is invested in a retirement fund which owns stock in Exxon Mobile. She has the same right. The people who own stock in oil companies have a right to protect their property. The upshot of this left-liberal argument is that any scientist in the employ of someone who may be adversely affected by public policy decisions ought to be ignored on the simple grounds that his employment makes him biased and therefore untrustworthy.

We actually have people asserting that in a free society we ought to accept this as reasonable: “We are going to inflict upon your industry public policy measures designed to deal with the fact (according to our consensus, anyway) that your product is destroying the planet. And we will ignore any scientist you may employ to confront us, on the grounds that his employment by you makes him non-independent and therefore untrustworthy.”

That’s not mere nonsense; it is noxious to a free society.

Second, this notion of “independence” and its relation to “trustworthiness” is problematic. I mentioned persuasive definition above. That is what we have here with the word “independent.” With this word, Q (and he’s not the only one) pretends “to describe the 'true' or 'commonly accepted' meaning of [the] term, while in reality stipulating an uncommon or altered use [in order] to support an argument for some view, or to create or alter rights, duties or crimes.”

The typical left-liberal does precisely that. He juxtaposes “independent” scientists with other scientists, scientists who work for the oil industry. For some reason, only those scientists who do not work for oil companies are “independent.” (And it is not so clear what it is these scientists are “independent” of.) Those other scientists, the “dependent” ones, deserve to have their biases enquired into and their integrity called into question. Why? Well because they are not “independent” and (gulp!) they have questioned the consensus. (How dare they? Help! Police!) Those scientists who make up the consensus are, we may assume, people of the highest character and integrity, with no biases we need to enquire into, no integrity we need question.

One would think a scientist who bucked the system and took on the consensus would be called the “independent” one. But no, in this case, “independent” means going along with the majority, or whoever the left-liberal sides with. (It reminds me of the way young people express their individuality: by dressing and acting like everyone else in their peer group.)

We are not really told how it is that a scientist, simply by not being employed by an oil company, is “independent” and therefore someone whose word can safely be trusted. Neither are we told why it is that a scientist who works for the oil industry is no more to be trusted than one who works for a tobacco company or (my personal favorite) a “discovery center”.

I suppose we are to believe it is because a scientist working for an oil company is being paid, not to do scientific investigation, but to issue pronouncements; his interest is his employer, the oil company, not the truth. Never mind that this is speculation and not fact. Never mind the possibility that the truth may very well not be with the consensus. Never mind, also, that it tells us nothing about anthropogenic global warming. It only matters whether a scientist is “independent.” It only matters that he does not work for an oil company, or a tobacco company, or a discovery center.

The “independent” scientist, on the other hand, since he doesn’t depend upon an oil company for his livelihood is free to pursue science for its own sake, following the facts wherever they may lead him. I mean, we all know that people who work for the government, or for non-profits are better people, more trustworthy.

Yeah. Right. We are asked to believe that people who wish to impose punitive measures on an entire industry are trustworthy on the sole grounds that they don’t work for the industry upon whom these punitive policies will be imposed. Color me skeptical.

Besides, “independence” is irrelevant. The validity of taking anyone’s word is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether global warming is anthropogenic, to what extent and whether anything can truly and realistically be done about it.

When there are such questions, “consensus” is also irrelevant, especially when (a) the existence of this consensus is used as little more than an excuse for summarily ending debate, (b) the members of this “consensus” are treated as secular clerics, whose consensus is given the weight of a Church Council, determining what shall be orthodox doctrine and (c) those who disagree with this orthodoxy are treated just a little better than the way The Church used to treat heretics.

All in all, then, I stand by my assertion in that previous posting: a free society ought not declare an end to debate, or refer to a debate as illegitimate when it has policy implications. Indeed, as I said above, such a notion is noxious to a free society.