Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

UC Berkeley physics professor, Richard A Muller, only three years ago doubted that the Earth was heating up to dangerous levels due to human activity. Now, with his research (funded by those benefactors of the Republican Party, Charles and David Koch) complete, Professor Muller has reversed himself saying that Global Warming is real, and that humans are almost entirely the cause. Muller says that, after years of funding studies by global warming skeptics, the Koch brothers honestly want to get the science clarified.

In a column published in the New York Times, Muller wrote, “Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.”

Muller told U.S. News & World Report blogger Elizabeth Flock that the Kochs do not match the caricature liberals draw of them. “People think they can look into the minds of Charles and David Koch,” Muller said to Flock. “But I have had conversations with them where they are interested in the science and the proof, so that these issues [of climate change] would be resolved.”

Maybe.

Congratulations, Dr. Muller! I have known a lot of scientists, and the best ones are very rigorous, but willing to change their minds given sufficient data. There are also scientists who can look at the same data in the same lab, come to different conclusions, and refuse to change their minds. A story about Warburg comes to mind. Politicians, and their billionaire benefactors, however, are not as strongly swayed by FACTS. For many business folks, THIS quarter’s results often outweigh the fate of future generations or the planet as a whole. Only some business leaders are stupid, but many are blinded by a strongly “judging” personality type that makes rapid decisions because it is EASIER and FASTER than thinking about the data. Some strongly judging politicians do, too, but mostly they think about how to get re-elected.

The L.A. Times Op-Ed piece is admittedly partisan, but it has its points.

Through their super PAC, Americans for Prosperity, the Kochs have dumped a mountain of money into Republican campaigns. They were the sugar daddies behind Herman Cain’s curious run for president and now are doing their best to elect Mitt Romney. When these libertarian billionaires snap their fingers, Republicans rush to do their bidding.

The big question now is, “Will the changed belief of Dr. Muller have any effect whatsoever on the Koch brothers, who could influence Republican politicians from the parts of the West, Midwest, and South stricken by the worst drought since 1956?”

My bet is “No!” but I hope that I’m wrong.

-Bill at

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