Politicians Asked To ‘Fess Up,
Cease Abusing "Weird Science"

By William Perry Pendley

(Editor’s note: William Perry Pendley is president and chief legal officer for Mountain States Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm specializing in issues of private property and individual liberty. Herewith Pendley offers a modest suggestion for political leaders seeking a worthwhile New Year’s resolution.)

December's global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, is just the latest use of weird science to achieve the radical agenda of environmental extremists.

From Montreal (and its ban on freon) to Molalla, Oregon (and the spotted owl logging ban); from Rio de Janeiro (and its bio-diversity treaty) to Reno, Nevada (and attacks on western grazing); and from Kyoto (and its global warming treaty) to Kane County, Utah (and Clinton's land grab), weird science is distorting public policy while adversely affecting the lives of millions of Americans.

The perversion of good science to achieve extremist policy objectives is the work of three groups: (1.) radical environmentalists who are at war with western civilization and seek to remake, if not destroy it; (2.) federal bureaucrats who seek greater authority — and the personnel and budget that comes with it — over the lives of every American; and (3.) millions of Americans who are unwilling to take personal responsibility for their problems, believing that others should be held accountable while demanding that the government do something, anything, about the latest crisis, real or imagined, even if it is the wrong thing, doesn't work, or violates legal or constitutional principles.

These groups are aided and abetted by three very liberal entities: (1.) the media, which recognizes that bad news, especially news of impending doom, sells; (2.) academia, which as the last vestige of the institutional left seeks validation for its published predictions of doom and calls for government-based solutions; and (3.) Hollywood, whose elite seeks to assuage its guilt by becoming a spokesperson for leftist causes while insinuating extremist messages into music, movies and television broadcasts.

Since these groups do not represent a majority, they could not succeed without the facts that: (1.) Americans are woefully ignorant regarding scientific matters and easily panicked; (2.) most politicians lack the courage to proclaim that there is no role for government to play in the latest "crisis," or even more courageously, that there is no crisis; and (3.) real scientists, who understand matters scientific, do not challenge the audacious assertions of the doom and gloom merchants.

These factors combine to put the nation on some very dangerous public policy paths, compelling the adoption of actions that are not just unnecessary, but even counterproductive, and, most certainly, economically devastating to millions of people. Anyone who objects is subjected to the most hateful of abuse; for example, Al Gore says such a person is like those who sought to appease Hitler!

"We can't afford to wait," say the modern Cassandras and their fellow travelers in the media and elsewhere. As the leader of the Sierra Club, sounding like a Nike commercial in a speech in Santa Barbara, announced, we should "just do it," and if we're wrong, "apologize later." How do we apologize, if we discover the predictions of global warming were wrong after the Draconian demands of the Kyoto treaty drive the price of gasoline up 44 cents a gallon or home heating oil up by 50 percent, harming the poor or elderly? Obviously, people who suffer from such wrong guesses by government can never be made whole. That is, if the government were in the business of apologizing for, much less admitting, its mistakes!

Not only does the federal government rarely, if ever, apologize, it refuses to abandon the most absurd policy even after proven wrong. This is because of the very powerful institutions that support big government and their unwillingness to relinquish the power that comes with such policies.

Obviously, since there are numerous reasons why weird science influences public policy, it will take concerted action, on several fronts, to reverse this phenomenon. But one small step toward that goal would be for political leaders to have the courage to admit publicly that a crisis does not exist, or if it does, to determine what role, if any, (and there may be no role) for the government to play.

The Kyoto Treaty is an excellent place to start!