Well it’s fine if you want to dispute the possible effects that global warming will have on the world and the exact time in which it might have those effects (the study cited, however, should be placed alongside others showing different results, and it should be kept in mind that people who really are qualified to speak with expertise on global warming are those who directly study the phenomenon and publish peer-reviewed articles and papers in that area…like the people in the 2004 study by Naomi Oreskes http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686). But really, what is the objection to working to stop the undeniable harm to the natural environment that Western ‘progress’ necessitates? “The economy?” It’s always about “the economy”. But everyone understands the ridiculousness of that argument on some level, including those who keep repeating it. The existence of slavery, for instance, which is still around in many forms today and practiced by many well-known American corporations, has the same justification…it’s good for “the economy”. It was ‘good’ for the economy to work thousands of African and Native Americans to death in mines, and to keep people in bondage on plantations harvesting cotton. Our nation was largely built on free labor, and hasn’t come that far in many ways, because it’s our corporations who hold third world peoples and children behind barbed wire working for 12+ hours for a few cents an hour. That’s disgusting and a violation of human rights, but it’s ‘good for the economy’. Everyone now pretty much agrees that economies should serve humanity in that respect at least though. Why not in every respect? Why ever put profit over people? It’s not going to be that bad to use less fuel, conserve, and work towards a sustainable world; in the long run it’s going to be good for nearly everyone, wherever they live and whatever their political persuasion happens to be. I just don’t understand what the real objection to better environmental practice is. It seems to me to have more to do with the short-terms gains of a few already-rich companies to the detriment of humanity and other living creatures of the earth. Tell me how I’m wrong here, man. I’m listening.

Good god…can the president do no wrong in your eyes? Do you really think he and his advisors understand the environment better than people like Al Gore? Whatever one may think of Gore as a politician, he undoubtedly understands environmental issues, especially global warming, better than Bush or quite possibly anyone in this adminstration. That’s not a partisan statement, just recognizing that Gore has been concerned with and actively involved in studying the phenomenon for decades and Bush hasn’t. In fact, Bush really can’t honestly be said to have shown much substantive understanding of scientific issues. Scientists and other intellectuals are pretty much unanimous on this point: that Bush might be the most anti-intellectual president in recent memory. I don’t see how this can be denied. He supports teaching “intelligent design”, for goodness sake. Even his own science advisor rebuked him on that.

I am quite familiar with real conservative intellectuals, and the conservative intellectual tradition. I have read some Milton Friedman and other economists, and conservative philosophers where they can be found (there are libertarians, and a libertarian research program, but no real conservative philosophy as such). My point is not that Bush is anti-intellectual in the sense that he doesn’t like the ideas of favored contemporary liberal theorists (Rawls, Dworkin, etc.); it’s that he is just against any kind of nuanced or careful thinking, and the open discussion that characterizes all vibrant and useful intellectual and scientific pursuits. He said his favorite political philosopher is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not a philosopher, in any sense of the word ever used by anyone (and “philosophers” include diverse people like Confucius, Socrates, Aristotle, Kant, Russell, Quine, Chomsky…what all these people have in common is hard to ascertain, except careful reflection). Also, the number of respected intellectuals who support things like “intelligent design” are few and far between. They exist in other fields (none of the proponents of this theory are actually trained or acknowledged experts in the field in question, which isn’t so different in the case of global warming…can you find one expert actively engaged in research on climate change who supports Bush’s understandings or policies?). It is in precisely this sense that Bush is anti-intellectual, and I think he is intentionally so (it has surely been pointed out to him that “nu-cu-lar” is the wrong pronunciation, for instance, and that creationism is not scientific…and I would guess that he personally knows this but recognizes, like so many politicians since Jimmy Carter must, the potential political usefulness of appearing simple and religious).

Also, while I of course try to be aware of my pre-conceptions and how they shape my understanding (actually I have read extensively on this very question in psychology and philosophy of science since reading Thomas Kuhn and others), I disagree in one sense that it is my “pre-conceptions” that lead me to believe what I do. In reality, my life has been made a lot harder by many of the ideas I have been convinced of, especially those regarding the environment and U.S. history and foreign policy. I don’t know why anyone would want to believe that they are contributing to destroying the earth or that their government has been one of the leading sponsors and perpetrators of international terrorism (by it’s own definition) in the world. That is awful, but in many specifiable ways it is true.

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