Bonamici’s thinking on climate change is dangerous

by Gordon J. Fulks, PhD

This quote from today’s Oregonian caught my eye:

“On climate change, Bonamici wondered whether Cornilles could be taken seriously because he doesn’t agree, as a majority of scientists do, that its caused by people.  “If you don’t rely on science, on what do you rely?” she asked”

Suzanne Bonamici is running for Congress against Rob Cornilles in Oregon’s 1st Congressional District.

One typically does not expect politicians to have much knowledge of science but at least some understanding of how it works.  The great mistake that Oregon Democrats like Bonamici make is to claim that it is settled by majority opinion.  Nothing could be further from the truth, as Albert Einstein and many other greats have demonstrated.  They knew that the only applicable arguments involved logic and evidence.  Einstein famously said that “one man can prove me wrong.”

A recent example of importance involved the Australian researchers Barry Marshall and Robin Warren who stood against the entire medical establishment to prove their point with logic and evidence.  Here is what was said at the award ceremony for the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine:

“Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, Against prevailing dogmas, you discovered that one of the most common and important diseases of mankind, peptic ulcer disease, is caused by a bacterial infection of the stomach. Your discovery has meant that this frequently chronic and disabling condition can now be permanently cured by antibiotics to the benefit of millions of patients.”What science would Suzanne Bonamici have supported in this case, the majority opinion that the issue was settled or the real science for which there was actual evidence?  Under the previous Congressman in the 1st Congressional District who resigned in disgrace, we were frequently treated to a vast ignorance about science and about climate change.   David Wu was sure that man caused climate change and that we needed to spend great sums of money to prevent catastrophe.  If you attempted to question him, he ducked out of the room to avoid revealing further ignorance.

What Bonamici fails to understand about climate change is what virtually every scientist knows: our climate constantly changes for a whole host of natural reasons, some well understood and many poorly understood.  It is not now nor has it ever been an issue of man-made carbon dioxide alone.

Anyone who claims that is substantially ignorant.  Even worse, Bonamici demonstrates that she cannot or will not even try to think beyond the prevailing propaganda.  That is very dangerous.

Oregon needs a 1st District Congressman who will be better than David Wu in many ways – including science.

Corbett, Oregon USA