Kenneth Richard writes at NoTricksZone: (follow the link for the full article)
Beginning in 2003, software engineer William Connolley quietly removed the highly inconvenient references to the global cooling scare of the 1970s from Wikipedia, the world’s most influential and accessed informational source.
It had to be done. Too many skeptics were (correctly) pointing out that the scientific “consensus” during the 1960s and 1970s was that the Earth had been cooling for decades, and that nascent theorizing regarding the potential for a CO2-induced global warming were still questionable and uncertain.
Kenneth quotes extensively from literature of the period. Including Schneider, 1974
Introduction: “In the last century it is possible to document an increase of about 0.6°C in the mean global temperature between 1880 and 1940 and a subsequent fall of temperature by about 0.3°C since 1940. In the polar regions north of 70° latitude the decrease in temperature in the past decade alone has been about 1°C, several times larger than the global average decrease. Up till now, past climatic changes (except possibly those of the last few decades [of cooling temperatures]) could hardly have been caused by man’s activities.
That’s the Stephen Schneider who later, following his ascension to the IPCC, justified alarmism by scientists:
To do that we need [Scientists should consider stretching the truth] to get some broadbased support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have.
Schneider, like so many employed as scientists, did not fully internalise the scientific method and avoided being humbled by recognition of the limits of what can be known. Instead, he became a missionary to save the world from itself.
Such things are a common trap for all humans. Scientists should be aware of those traps, keeping in mind that nobody is easier to fool than yourself.
contrary2belief 