The sad state of science

Okay, here's what I know:

1) TV makes you stupid. NOT
Television doesn't turn your brain into goo, because I've been a teletubbie from before formless blobs as kids' entertainment was reinvented by the BBC, and my memory is okay and my brain works fine.
N.B.: I can vouch for that fact, since I just sneezed so hard I'm staring at it. Or parts of it.

2) The sun's gone out!
Or, scientists will tell me how to think
I remember a time way back when the whole global warming lobby was only starting out. I know, by using the L-word I must be in the camp of the nitwit know-nothing idiot deniers. But take my word on it, I'm not(a). There was this dude who had a theory on sunspots, and was back then still allowed to speak publicly (i.e. on TV). The sunspots theory was way up there with pollution. But the Pollution lobby won, and hence Sunspot dude became the idiot black sheep and was run out of town. The Pollution lobby used that don't-hurt-your-brains-we're-onto-it tone they use like a magic wand to make us layman all look the other way. Since our brains are goo anyway, we'll have forgotten all about sunspots after five minutes. And their little stampede made sure that any other sunspot expert would sort of keep his mouth. There a reason a family has only one black sheep.

3) God's dead, long live god!
Let me tell you, I'm all for a greener economy. Seriously, it can't be green enough. Lots of shit is going wrong because of the pollution our civilization barfs into the surroundings, from five legged frogs to asthma on the rise.
See, I live on a busy road, and when circumstances are just right (freezing, moist air but no precipitation) it will snow on said busy road. That's right, just on that road, and only during peak traffic. Fine dust made visible, neat-o! Not.
There are problems we can tackle, and things we should change, in our best interest, and anything(b) goes! But let's not kid ourselves, even if we all move to one side of the planet and jump up at the same time, we're not gonna make a wobble. Besides, if it's all that simple, we could have plugged that ozone hole back in the '90s by boycotting any type of printer not laser. We could way have saved the melting pole ice by now, dumbasses.

4) It's not a game
Rock-paper-scissor is, expert-critic-denier isn't. The thing is, the last couple of years we've witnessed a process that happened before, only this time the bonding of science and industry went fast enough to actually be aware of it. That is, if you are aware and not busy shouting names at people who utter some form criticism on the climate change lobby, like you probably used to do on the school playground. Naming things and doing so in a loud voice does not make them real(c). There's no such magic in this world. Well, maybe there is: it's called "media" and they'll have us believe there is something like winners and losers in science.

5) an expert is NEVER wrong
Biology and the related medical sector have grown accustomed to a constant threat of money/funds finding directly implementationable research more interesting. Small but ever so important research is overrun by the steam-powered We-Can-Make-The-Miracle-Cure-For-You Wholesale, but still some manage to survive. They've had oooh, over a century to learn how important the checks-and-balances system of peer review is, especially to make sure real research is also funded, not just "engineering". They make it work. Well, if we do not count Korean clones and such, which is in fact a nice illustration of what can go wrong with science.
Those of us aware enough have seen the analogue of Pharmaceutical Power being born. A new economical supergroup, who found a feeding ground of scientists completely unaware of the power of money because seriously, how short-term applicable can weather be?
Whenever someone argued: "Oh well, he's obviously funded by the Oil lobby!", I thought:
- Who's economically dependent on your research, and hence very much funding it? Are you sure you aren't cutting any corners to make sure your lab assistant will be with you next year? You really expect me to believe solar panels are made by these fashionable hippies all for free out of the bottom of their green and bio-gingerbread hearts?
- It's an invalid argument: it doesn't tell me what's wrong with his theory, it tells me how you feel about the guy and how you expect me to feel about him. But see, spending long years in a girls-only school have made hypersensitive to these from the belly attacks and it makes me sad when scientists do it in public. Yes, instead of hearing you tell me Y is a Creationist and thus an idiot, I'd rather hear you tell me what's wrong with his theory. Preferably in learned words and an objective tone.

6) Out of religion's grasp, onto the pyre
What what whaaat? You believe man walked with dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden? No I don't, but I must remind you that Darwinism is a theory and not a *cough* God-given fact. Until it is, it's open for discussion so it must be discussed. My mind is open enough to want to hear someone point me at the holes in a theory, how tiny or difficult to understand they might be. Whenever you're not allowed to hear the non-believers speak, the Inquisition can't be far behind. And also, treating non-believers (or any other "those not with you hence against you" group) like that will come back and bite you in the ass, twice-over.
I live in a country where the ultra-right has grown strong feeding on the families of boys who happily went to fight on the Russian front for Nazi Germany and were near completely stripped from their civic rights for life for collaboration. This being a country with a social system (with heavily subsidized education and health care), can you imagine the impact on the family, the firming of their resolve, the grudge they will keep? All it took was one party to recognize good feeding grounds.
If we can't do it to books in our free and democratic world, I would like to suggest we don't do it with people. And that's what actually bugs me every day with the climate change debate.


(a) I'm in a very special niche, namely the I-don't-care-and-I-don't-think-we-figure-that-importantly-in-the-system-anyway.

(b) Anything? Belay that, because that's just what's wrong with the GW-lobby. Integrity of research is way more important.

(c) It just means you think I'm a moron who doesn't speak the language.