Why Are Environmentalists
Taking Anti-Science Positions?
On issues ranging from genetically modified crops to
nuclear power, environmentalists are increasingly refusing to listen to
scientific arguments that challenge standard green positions. This
approach risks weakening the environmental movement and empowering
climate contrarians.
by fred pearceFrom Rachel Carson’s
Silent Spring
to James Hansen’s modern-day tales of climate apocalypse,
environmentalists have long looked to good science and good scientists
and embraced their findings. Often we have had to run hard to keep up
with the crescendo of warnings coming out of academia about the perils
facing the world. A generation ago, biologist Paul Ehrlich’s
The Population Bomb and systems analysts Dennis and Donella Meadows’
The Limits to Growth
shocked us with their stark visions of where the world was headed. No
wide-eyed greenie had predicted the opening of an ozone hole before the
pipe-smoking boffins of the British Antarctic Survey spotted it when
looking skyward back in 1985. On issues ranging from ocean acidification
and tipping points in the Arctic to the dangers of nanotechnology, the
scientists have always gotten there first — and the environmentalists
have followed.
And yet, recently, the environment movement seems to have been turning
up on the wrong side of the scientific argument. We have been making
claims that simply do not stand up. We are accused of being
anti-science — and not without reason. A few, even close friends, have
begun to compare this casual contempt for science with the tactics of
climate contrarians.
That should hurt.
Three current issues suggest that the risks of myopic adherence to
ideology over rational debate are real: genetically modified (GM) crops,
nuclear power, and shale gas development. The conventional green
position is that we should be opposed to all three. Yet the voices of
those with genuine environmental credentials, but who take a different
view, are being drowned out by sometimes abusive and irrational
argument.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/why_are_environmentalists_taking_anti-science_positions/2584/
Enjoy this satirical look at the politics of energy by PCI Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg.