Awrite. If I understand the thinking correctly, this is where we are to have facebook arguments from now on.Love the design etc Scobes, nice work.Anyway, I think I was waiting on Baloney explaining why he believes that the views of the scientific community on global warming should be disregarded on the grounds that they are part of a conspiracy to exploit the poor of the world. Here is what I wrote.

(argument continued from facebook)

Well, first of all, I don't have contempt for the scientific community. I have contempt for the pharmaceutical industry, but that is not the scientific community. Neither are governments, corporations, doctors or any other special interest group. The scientific community is by no means perfect or incapable of error, but I believe that their methods make serious error unlikely.

Having to present an idea and have it attacked from all possible angles by highly qualified scientists from across the world, all working independently and all with much more to gain from disproving your theory than proving it, forces these scientists to make damn fucking certain that they haven't made a provable mistake. These professors and research academics give a shit about nothing except their own reputation and academic standing. They spend their lives in long distance battles with other academics, meticulously going through their rival's publications desperate to find the smallest error to pounce upon. They are sad, they are egomaniacs, but they are not pawns of governments and corporations. Of course, some are in the pay of governments and corporations, but the system means that they still have to back up everything they claim with provable facts.

I do wish that the scientific community was more anarchistic, for example it's obscene that journals have a monopoly on access to scientific research. As a student I get access to journals for free, but my uni fees reflect the large amounts paid to journals just for access to knowledge that should be open to everyone. The ordinary punter pays per article.There is too much hording of knowledge and elitism,but the fact remains that if the best, most highly qualified specialists in a particular field cannot find fault in a hypothesis, then it is reasonable for the rest of us to accept that hypothesis.

The idea that governments and corporations have managed to get all of these respected scientists from across the world to falsify their research in order to prove that climate change exists when it doesn't is batshit crazy conspiracy theory. It would involve an international conspiracy of David Ike proportions. Have all of the scientists been brainwashed? have they all individually received massive bribes with similar massive bribes given to all who decide to independently verify their findings? This seems like a lot of trouble to go to, especially when the message ultimately leads people to consume less, and lays the blame for environmental crisis at the door of government and big business, who are the usual suspects when it comes to conspiracies.

If the evil forces of capitalism have engineered the idea of climate change, why have they spent so much money funding those who deny it? Look at the various fronts with names like the 'Global Climate Coalition' and the 'Competitive Enterprise Institute' who received $1.3M funding from oil companies in the early nineties. On 29th September 2006, the Guardian ran a headline 'Royal Society calls on oil company to stop funding groups that mislead public'. Exxon Mobil gave $2.9M to thirty nine climate change denial groups with similarly dodgy names like 'International Policy Network' and the 'UK Scientific Alliance'. Now here IS a conspiracy. A conspiracy to convince the public that climate change isn't happening, or at least to throw enough shit at the argument to make it look like there is some doubt. Big business spends billions on lobbyists in the US, all trying to get the government to loosen restrictions on carbon output and not sign any agreements to limit emissions. They have convinced Sarah Palin. They are cunts.

Obviously, once forced to see the facts, kicking and screaming, the powers that be will try to preserve business as usual and even profit from attempts to tackle climate change. The news item you posted is an example, as is the weird fixes like carbon capture and the creation of a separate market for carbon emissions (offsetting? fuck off.) But these things are only a symptom of the fact that they literally can't keep denying that it's happening, and are doing what they do best, trying to make money and screw poor people.It's to be expected. It doesn't mean climate change doesn't exist. Global capitalism is in ideological crisis because it can't accommodate in it's philosophy a simple fact that Karl Marx could have told them in 1848 - namely that capitalism is unsustainable.

Also Scobie, I would like you to clarify why it says you are a 'Libertarian' on facebook and if that does indeed mean that you have started wearing bow ties.

cheers