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From the horse’s mouth — climate change theory has nothing to do with the truth. In a remarkable column in today’s Guardian Mike Hulme, professor in the school of environmental sciences at the University of East Anglia and the founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research — a key figure in the promulgation of climate change theory but who a short while ago warned that exaggerated forecasts of global apocalypse were in danger of destroying the case altogether — writes that scientific truth is the wrong tool to establish the, er, truth of global warming. Instead, we need a perspective of what he calls ‘post-normal’ science:
Self-evidently dangerous climate change will not emerge from a normal scientific process of truth seeking
What a ridiculous path our science is going down at the moment. Post-normal science of course let to the drowning of witches in the 16th century - where "facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent".
Despicable
Self-evidently dangerous climate change will not emerge from a normal scientific process of truth seeking
Post-Normal Science is a concept developed by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz, attempting to characterise a methodology of inquiry that is appropriate for cases where "facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent". It is primarily seen in the context of the debate over global warming and other similar, long-term issues where we posess less information than we would like.
What a ridiculous path our science is going down at the moment. Post-normal science of course let to the drowning of witches in the 16th century - where "facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent".
Despicable
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