B.A.S. Disjoints, Flays, Roasts "I'm Not A Scientist" And Other Double-Down Dumb GOP Tactics

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Unfortunately for Boehner and buddies, it doesn’t take a smarty-pants to see the complications that result from pleading ignorance about science. If non-scientists can’t understand science, what’s the point of inviting scientists to testify at congressional committee hearings on climate science? And how can congressmen understand their own handpicked witnesses well enough to form any opinions on climate policy? Imagine if politicians applied not-a-scientist reasoning to other areas of expertise: “I’m not a doctor, so I can’t comment on the Affordable Care Act.” “I never served in the military, so I can’t take a position on nuclear weapons.” “I’m not an economist, so I’ll recuse myself from voting on the proposed federal budget.” “I’m not an engineer, so don’t expect me to have anything intelligent to say about whether my state needs any new roads or bridges.”

Even people who are scientists aren’t necessarily experts on climate. But that doesn’t prevent them or anyone else from reading and comprehending reports such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest assessment or the one the National Climate Assessment recently released by a team of more than 300 experts. The fact that most of us aren’t climate scientists is precisely why we rely on such people for credible information and authoritative analysis—and public policy makers should do the same.

Has climate denial become cheesy? Most Republicans aren’t making a point of being non-scientists, especially after President Obama skewered the phrase in a commencement speech on June 14, offering his own translation of “I’m not a scientist”: “I accept that man-made climate change is real, but if I admit it, I'll be run out of town by a radical fringe that thinks climate science is a liberal plot.” Had climate deniers been around at the dawn of the space program, Obama said, they would have told John F. Kennedy that the moon “was made of cheese.”

We can’t get a taste of the moon, yet most of us trust science enough to believe that it’s not cheddar. With climate change, we can see for ourselves: coastal flooding, melting glaciers, extreme weather. Most Americans are not as clueless about what’s causing these changes as some of their elected representatives claim to be. A Gallup poll in mid-March reported that nearly six in 10 Americans believe that pollution from human activities, rather than natural causes, is responsible for the rise in global temperatures over the past century. Even among Republicans, 41 percent agree.

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http://thebulletin.org/did-climate-deniers-just-admit-they-don%E2%80%99t-know-what-they%E2%80%99re-talking-about7261