[Dialogue] NYTimes.com: Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate

[David Dunn]

On Apr 28, 2009, at 10:57 PM, Don Elliott wrote:

> Is it not true that water vapor is, by a factor of ten or so, the  
> most abundant heat trapping gas in the atmosphere?
> How do we reduce evaporation, when the planet is warming up?  Clouds  
> also reflect heat, so maybe the planet is
> self regulating and our puny efforts to reduce CO2 are likely to  
> have little, or no, effect on the climate.

Our colleague Don, whom I hold in high esteem, illustrates what I  
consider to be THE critical human dilemma of our time:

There are shocking numbers of people whose images of reality are  
impaired by an intractable "scotoma" when it comes to climate change.

A "scotoma" is an area of impaired or lost vision within a field of  
vision otherwise in a good [or at least a better] state. This 'blind  
spot' is the perfect illustration of Boulding's insight about how  
images can act to filter out what we are able to see.

Luke put it this way: "You know how to analyze the appearance of the  
earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?

The very high temperature of my comment is the result of fearing for  
the future of my children and grandchildren when rational and  
intelligent people are simply out of touch with reality.

David

---
David Dunn
dmdunn1 at gmail.com