A Look Ahead on Kaizen Curmudgeon
“Hey, Curmudge, you seem to have become rather critical of
conventional wisdom lately.”
“That’s for sure, Julie. If it becomes fallacious dogma, like the LNT hypothesis
applied to low-level radiation, I’m unforgiving. However I’m eager to study unresolved topics like
anthropogenic (man-made) global warming that have become dogma only to some
people.”
“A curmudgeon with an open mind? How unusual! I
guess that explains why our next few discussions will be on global warming. I hope that your old, leaky brain
recalls that we talked about that subject rather indirectly back in January and
February of 2010.”
“I do, Julie.
That was in our personal blog, Curmudgeon‘s Wastebasket, in which we
posted controversial items not allowed by our corporate sponsor. Let’s reprint some of these old Wastebasket postings in our current blog
to remind our readers about the hot topics in global warming back in
2009-2010. Here are the rather
subtle lessons that we attempted to teach: (a) watch for ‘spin’ in the news,
(b) cause and effect confused the locals, but not Galileo, (c) mathematical
models and vested interests, (d) peer-reviewed publications (alluding to
“climategate”), (e) wizardry, climate prognostication, and draconian solutions.”
“Then what next, Old Guy?”
“I’ve spent the past couple of weeks bringing myself up to
date on climate issues. Most of
the literature is still highly polarized.
What I was seeking was an article that was comprehensive, unbiased, and
current. And I found one.
Here’s the link. It was written by a Norwegian, Emil A.
Røyrvik of SINTEF Technology and Society.
Because the paper is 82 pages long, I suggest that you start reading it ASAP.”
“Thanks
a lot, Curmudge. And I was hoping
for a summer vacation. So are we
going to base our postings on that article alone?”
“Not
quite, Julie. We’ll try to give an
overview of what is being said today on both sides of the debate. Nevertheless, concerned readers will
need to do some studying on their own.
Remember that a blog is too short to really teach a subject. We can only tell a reader where to find
information so he can teach himself.”
“Tell
me, Curmudge, do you really think that we can discuss a controversial topic
without favoring one side or the other?”
“Not
since our blog became independent.
If I had to be totally unbiased, I could no longer be a curmudgeon; and
we’d have to change our names to Snow White and Grumpy.”
Kaizen
Curmudgeon
Link
to posting from blog archives: Curmudgeon
and Jaded Julie Talk about Names, 5/23/07
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