Climategate

Hub Zwart2 maart 2010

Michael Crichton 1942 - 2008

Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park“The late twentieth century has witnessed a scientific gold rush of astonishing proportions: the headlong and furious haste to commercialize genetic engineering. This enterprise has proceeded so rapidly – with so little outside commentary – that its dimensions and implications are hardly understood at all… The commercialization of molecular biology is the most stunning ethical event in the history of science, and it has happened with astonishing speed. For four hundred years, science has always proceeded as a free and open inquiry into the workings of nature… Scientists have always rebelled against secrecy in research, and have even frowned on the idea of patenting their discoveries, seeing themselves as working for the benefit of mankind. When, in 1953, two young researchers in England, James Watson and Francis Crick, deciphered the structure of DNA, their work was hailed as a triumph of the centuries-old quest to understand the universe in a scientific way. It was confidentially expected that their discovery would be selflessly extended to the greater benefit of mankind. Yet that did not happen. Thirty years later, nearly all of Watson and Crick’s scientific colleagues were engaged in another sort of enterprise entirely. Research in molecular biology has become a vast, multibillion-dollar commercial undertaking…”

Climate Research

• “Scientists can’t say, ‘I do the research, and I don’t care how it is used’. That’s out of date, even in a seemingly obscure field like glacier geology… like it or not, we’re in the middle of a war – a global war on information versus disinformation. The war is fought on many battlegrounds: newspaper op-eds, television reports, scientific journals, websites, conferences, class rooms – and court rooms”.

Paul Crutzen:‘We have entered the anthropocene’

Crutzen, P. J., and E. F. Stoermer. 2000. The "Anthropocene". Global Change Newsletter. 41: 12-13.

Anthropocene• To assign a more specific date to the onset of the

"anthropocene" seems somewhat arbitrary, but we propose the latter part of the 18th century, although we are aware that alternative proposals can be made (some may even want to include the entire holocene). However, we choose this date because, during the past two centuries, the global effects of human activities have become clearly noticeable. This is the period when data retrieved from glacial ice cores show the beginning of a growth in the atmospheric concentrations of several "greenhouse gases", in particular CO2 and CH4. Such a starting date also coincides with James Watt's invention of the steam engine in 1784

Peter Singer – One World

• “By spraying deodorant at your armpit in your New York apartment, you could … be contributing to the skin cancer death of people living in Chile”

Aanbevelingen

• Complexiteit en onzekerheid• De waarheid is niet eenduidig• De waarheid is meerstemmig• Complexiteit en normativiteit