Climategate

[Thorne]

This is the process I didnt make it...commom acceptance of something doesnt make it correct eaither.

That's exactly right. Just because a majority of people don't hold to the AGW hypothesis doesn't mean they are right!

Once upon a time it was thought the earth was flat and that it was the center of creation. A small group of others said no its not.

Most people are surprised to learn that the ancient Greeks knew that the Earth was round. I believe it was Eratosthenes who made the first known measurements of the Earth's diameter, and his calculations were remarkably accurate given the tools he had to work with. Columbus knew the Earth was round before he began his journey across the Atlantic. In reality it was only the uneducated and the ignorant who believed the world was flat.

And the cross disiplinary sciences invloved in climate models etc...are not working outside of their fields per say. Meteorology and Cosmology and Geology and Archeology all deal at times with planetrary weather paterns as part of their field of study...the difference between them and the Climatologist is their primary focus;

Cosmology deals with the origins of the universe, not with weather patterns on Earth, but the others do indeed have some input into global weather patterns. And I assume you would add Astronomy, since the largest driver of climate is the Sun. But you have to remember that Meteorologists deal primarily with relatively short-term weather patterns, not long-term climate patterns. Geologists and Archeologists are concerned with ancient climate patterns, determining what the climate was like thousands and even millions of years ago. The kinds of data they study is much different than the modern data a Climatologist would study. While this kind of data is important for determining climatological trends, it has little bearing on modern data being gathered.

which as in the case with the decan taps model provided an insight which one disiplinary field (that of the astromoners) was refusing to look at becuase it didnt support their theory.

Actually, I doubt Astronomers care one way or another which hypothesis is correct. The Chicxulub asteroid is of interest to them, and I suppose to some extent its effects, but as to whether this event or the Deccan Traps event were the primary cause of the extinctions is of little concern to them. Biologists, on the other hand, are indeed discussing the two events, trying to determine which was the cause of the extinctions, or if both played a role. Personally, I would speculate (and it is just speculation on my part) that the asteroid impact may have initiated the volcanic activity which created the Deccan Traps. After all, they say that the large earthquake which caused the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami made the Earth "ring like a bell" and actually changed the rotational speed of the planet. I would think that an impact on the order of the Chicxulub asteroid would have done far worse.

It isnt my fualt that many of these (cross disipline as well as some climatologists in the minority) scientists are poking holes in the "prefered" model of what the PC green politicans would like to maintain as mainstream in the public eye via both direct and indirect influence over the field of the climatologists.

I think the problem with this whole debate is that we are getting far to much input from the politicians and the talk show wackos (of all stripes) and far too little from the scientists. What we need is a popular, respected, erudite scientist who can explain these things in terms the average person can understand. Someone like Carl Sagan, perhaps. The problem is that the impact of global warming is so widespread that the politicians just can't keep out of it. And as we all know, the politicians will fall onto the side of an issue which will insure their continued reelection and a continuous flow of income. Currently, denying global warming is what meets those criteria.