In his WSJ column today, Daniel Henninger argues that the “climategate” revelations have badly damaged science. Most people used to think that science was the bastion of truth-seeking in a world of chicanery. No longer, thanks to the likes of professors such as Penn State’s Michael Mann. If your foremost objective is to manufacture a consensus around some idea (particularly one that puts money in your pocket through research grants) rather than finding the truth, you aren’t much of a scientist.
Henninger writes, “If the new ethos is that ‘close enough’ science is now sufficient to achieve political goals, serious scientists should be under no illusion that politicians will press-gang them into service for future agendas.” Exactly so.
