Shy Scientists Dropped Ball on Climate Change

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 13, 2009 5:34 PM CDT
Shy Scientists Dropped Ball on Climate Change
A demonstrator holds a card which reads 'The Last Lady' as he protests during a visit of G8 leaders spouses in L'Aquila, Italy.   (AP Photo)

The Senate will soon debate the climate bill passed by the House, but “even if we do get a global-warming law for the first time in 2009, in a sense we’ve already failed,” write Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum on BuzzFlash. The issue’s 20 years old, but an unwitting coalition of reticent scientists, ideological pols, and an uninformed public prevented action “back when it would have been far easier and cheaper.”

“Blaming Republicans is certainly warranted,” Mooney and Kirshenbaum write. “It’s unequivocally clear that their politics are keeping them from accepting scientific reality.” But scientists aren’t off the hook. “Just as the public ought to move toward thinking more like scientists, scientists should also reach out more to help them get there.” To see that this doesn’t happen again, “we have to take steps now to bring these ‘two cultures,’ scientists and the public, closer together.” (More global warming stories.)

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