On MSNBC last night, Bill Nye, the so-called science guy, said that if you oppose the concept of climate change you are unpatriotic. I laughed for about 10 seconds, then I got angry. Anyone who knows anything about me at all knows that my patriotism runs very deep. How dare that guy accuse me of being unpatriotic. It's like when the vice president said paying taxes was patriotic. How Torrey of him. I suppose the Boston Tea Party was unpatriotic. I invite him to arrest me.
Most of the "climate change" issue revolves around circuitous arguments and circumstantial evidence. I made myself extremely unpopular at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego one year when I challenged conclusions based on limited or spurious data. Many of the presenters extrapolated and drew conclusions based on a very limited data set. They all salivated for the chance to return the favor, only to find that I had ANOVA and N numbers to back up my less-sweeping conclusions.
Then there is Nye himself. When people come to me and ask my expertise, I remind them that I studied Plant Biochemistry in school. I am not a licensed medical professional. My microbiology experience was limited to Vibrio fischeri, Eschericia coli, and a slieu of plant pathogens which are hardly scary to humans. Read my resume, and you will read only things that are true. I'm an intelligent man, but I know myself and my limits, and I will not pretend to be an expert on anything. I know enough to know that I know basically nothing about everything. One of my favorite professors as an undergrad once told us that an expert is "he who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing at all." I like that. Nye's expertise is as an engineer, not as a climatologist, a biologist, or a chemist. I no longer buy his arguments.
I am, a patriot, and I beg you prove me wrong.
Most of the "climate change" issue revolves around circuitous arguments and circumstantial evidence. I made myself extremely unpopular at the Plant and Animal Genome Conference in San Diego one year when I challenged conclusions based on limited or spurious data. Many of the presenters extrapolated and drew conclusions based on a very limited data set. They all salivated for the chance to return the favor, only to find that I had ANOVA and N numbers to back up my less-sweeping conclusions.
Then there is Nye himself. When people come to me and ask my expertise, I remind them that I studied Plant Biochemistry in school. I am not a licensed medical professional. My microbiology experience was limited to Vibrio fischeri, Eschericia coli, and a slieu of plant pathogens which are hardly scary to humans. Read my resume, and you will read only things that are true. I'm an intelligent man, but I know myself and my limits, and I will not pretend to be an expert on anything. I know enough to know that I know basically nothing about everything. One of my favorite professors as an undergrad once told us that an expert is "he who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing at all." I like that. Nye's expertise is as an engineer, not as a climatologist, a biologist, or a chemist. I no longer buy his arguments.
I am, a patriot, and I beg you prove me wrong.
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